Fire in Paradise
by RaFire
Summary: Gold and Regina are fighting for a coveted position in the office but things change when a new assistant is bought in for Gold by Regina. Gold will have to face his past from which he has been running for so long. Will include smut in the coming chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Morning Jeff" Gold called out to Jefferson, security specialist, over his cube.

Jeff was wearing his usual maroon hoodie with that ridiculous hat-shaped logo and MAD HATTER written circling that stupid logo. Well… in a way he is a mad man…what with his untimely dark humor, fetish for anything that is black, unpredictable change of mood and a temper ending object into thousand different pieces. But he has a very bright side too….he is smart, savvy, and the best at his work in the whole of this city. He is an infrastructure security expert and that means right now our company is the most secured of any in this city. He is so much in demand in his skill that other companies are ready to pay him double that he earns here but he rejected all of them and stuck with Regal Eagle Inc.

And right now he is bent over the screen in front of him, concentrating hard to either break the computer screen with his glare or else he was really working on something important. And then he raised his hand with a thumbs-up shouting

"Morning Gold!"

_Does he have to scream so much? Alright, confirmed that he is not going to break the screen._

Gold on his behalf wasn't surprised with Jeff's current state what with the merger between Magnificent Corp and Regal Eagle Inc. going on; Jeff is way too busy in securing these two companies together. Normally Jeff would have all the time he needed in this world to come over to Gold's cabin and have a chit-chat, usually bitching about his boss (Regina), or talk about his teenage daughter, of the ladies in the company, party, drinks anything and everything except WORK.

Although Jeff is a very smart guy he hates working in a confined environment. He now and then sneaks out and flirts with the female staff on the third floor. He claims that that's the place where all the gems of the company are sitting and in his words he goes there to shine them off every now and then so that they won't catch dust if regular attention is not paid.

Gold finally reached his cabin; a place that he calls as his lair and he, the lion. Gold took off his coat and threw it over the back of his chair. He pulled out his laptop from his bag and connected to the company portal and sat down with a huff. Once he got satisfied that there was nothing important or catastrophic happening that would need his expert attention he got up from his seat and went to his assistant, David Charming's desk, which was right outside of his cabin.

_Really….he has to be late on the first day of the week? And why does he have that ridiculous surname…..charming? _ Gold thought checking his watch. It was 9:10 am.

Gold suddenly felt an urge to have coffee and started walking towards the cafeteria. On the way he dropped by Jeff's cube and invited him too.

"Hey Jeff, wanna go for a coffee?"

"Sure man. Why not. Anyways I wasn't getting this stupid thing working." Jeff shrugged and grabbed his cellphone and joined Gold and started walking towards the cafeteria.

"By the way how was your class last week?" Jeff asked with his side smile and that really stupid one eyebrow dance he does to tease me. He knows that even though I love teaching I really hate teaching to a bunch of airheads.

Ignoring his antics "Going really good, caught a new one texting in the class and gave him a really…. interesting assignment to be submitted next week and the best part is – it will be graded."

"And he is not going to survive" both Gold and Jeff said in unison and started laughing out on it.

"Wow that's a record Gold and it's just been a week of the semester. Usually you end up getting a victim by the midterm. You are such a badass man" Jeff said excitedly.

"Yeah. I just don't get it. Why is it so difficult for them to keep their cellphones switched off for just a couple of hours? Is that something huge to ask for?!"

"You are terrible Gold. You got to make your classes' way more interesting to them."

He continued," I remember having a professor in my college days and where I never once blinked my eye during the lecture. Always trying concentrate as those lectures were extremely interesting and it really affected all my senses." Jeff sighed with a dreamy smile.

"Really!?"

"Cross my heart. The professor had a nice rump which got highlighted more with those sky high heels every time she turned towards the board" Jeff grinned again.

"You are such an ass." Gold said irritated grabbing his coffee from the machine and wanting to throw it on his face.

"She was more like a female version of you except that she was more appealing to the opposite gender and in the end got to shag her in the very class on my graduation night."

If Gold was not used to Jeff's previous adventures then he would definitely been shocked with this revelation but he just stood there staring at Jeff smiling like a kid winning a prize at a competition.

Jeff directed Gold towards the nearest table so that they would make small talk while they finished their coffee. This has become an everyday ritual for both of them. So Gold just sighed and took a chair opposite to Jeff.

"So what's with David? He seems to be late every day?" enquired Gold.

"Well…I saw him this morning in the elevator and he was heading towards the third floor"

"So the kid working for the ladies right away in the morning rather than report to me of the previous weeks work?"

Jeff put down his coffee and stared at Gold with a surprised expression.

"Wait a second….so you have no clue of what happened while you were gone last week?"

"What did I miss this time? Did he finally shag that third floor girl and got her pregnant? What's her name… ummmm?"

"Who? Mary Margaret. Nah. Aren't you checking your emails Gold?"

"I do"

Jeff eyed him and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know you would open an email that's red flagged or that which has a heading that states – Regina is dead"

Gold stopped sipping his coffee and stared at Jeff with daggers.

"What!" Jeff mouthed defensively.

But then Gold immediately composed himself and smirked at Jeff saying.

"Actually that's not a bad idea about a dead boss huh?!"

They both knew how much they hated Regina and her bossy tantrums.

"Alrite. Alrite. I will fill in. While you were away a lot of things happened here. As you know there was a massive software glitch last week. Everyone in the office panicked. Eventually the customers and our major clients also started noticing it as their orders were getting misplaced and some were issued bills of 'God knows how much'. Customers were furious, management was going berserk and it was a total chaotic atmosphere. "

Jeff's hands were moving in all the direction explaining the situation. His face was equally animated as he continued.

"David and I were bombarded with calls from everywhere. Well I was lucky not to face the Big Boss you know Mr. Spenser, but David wasn't so lucky. He was put right in the center of the battlefield. He had to take the brunt from the management and field calls from the customers and at the same time go around and reload the sales software clean. Hopefully by then I had fixed the core issue; it was nasty virus that corrupted our internal site. Seems like it was someone from inside. I am still looking into it."

Throughout Gold kept his hands folded in front of him and staring at them with a solemn face listening attentively. By now Jeff was breathless as he was talking so fast that finally he gave a sigh and then spoke again.

"But ultimately it was David who emerged as a hero to the company by preventing a major disaster. And trust me he actually did a very good job by keeping the boat from sinking. And because of this the management decided that David deserved a promotion and so they moved him to the third floor and also so that his services could be better utilized by those damsels and the management. What a lucky bastard!"

Finally Gold lifted his head to say something but then Jeff interrupted him.

"And you yeah you got a new _assistant_."

"What?!"

"You heard me. Charming gone. New assistant in." Jeff nodded poignantly

"Why would I need a new assistant? David should be able to do whatever he has been doing so far no matter where he sits" said Gold with an irritating expression.

Jeff shrugged and said

"I guess he will be reporting directly to Big boss. You know."

Gold looked like as if someone had punched him on his face. He was happy and proud that David was able to take care of such a critical situation in the most professional way possible but losing him is like a major setback to **his** plans.

"Guess who was rallying for David's promotion and got the new assistant in?"

Gold narrowed his eyes on Jeff trying to figure out who that unfortunate jerk was and even though he expected it to be someone else but unfortunately Jeff nodded his head as though he knew what Gold was thinking about.

"Yup. Regina."

Gold slammed his fist on the table so hard that his coffee spilt on the table. He ignored the startled looks of the other employees sitting in the nearby tables.

"What the heck?! I stay away from my office for a few days and everything is turned upside down and by the way who the hell gave Regina the authority to choose a new assistant for me?"

"Mr. Spenser, the CEO of the company, who else" replied Jeff.

ooo0ooo

Gold was never so mad before. Well not exactly so much but yes Gold can get pissed off with anyone and everything around him. He is ambitious, hardworking, stubborn and loves his personal space and he has his own way of does things whether in the workplace or in his life. Since the time he joined Regal Eagle Inc. he brought in several profitable contracts and he has been with them for hardly ten years but the company has moved up in leaps and bounds. When he started out initially there were hardly a couple of dozen employees but now they have employees in all three continents. That's a major achievement till Regina joined the company a few years ago. She was working with Maleficent Corp, our rival company, but then then smell of money pulled her towards Regal Eagle Inc. Undeniably she is a hardworking woman too but her way of working was way out of the line and many times Gold had to step in to sort out the mess that she created. She never took this interference in a good way and since then had hated Gold and made sure that stuck her butt in Gold's life and showed him hell. Their hatred was mutual so Gold too equal interest in making her life miserable.

And right now their hatred has moved to another level as they both are competing for the coveted company vice-president position. This would mean complete dominance of the other person's life and practically ruling over them.

"What the hell is going on Spenser?" Gold stormed into Spenser's office.

"Morning Mr. Gold" Spenser was shuffling through some files in front of his desk.

"I was assumed that you would break my door in your anger so I kept it open for you to ram in."

"You moved David…..and hired a new one…in his place….without consulting me? And you let Regina do the hiring?" Gold was seething with anger but composed himself and he made sure whatever he was trying to tell was emphasized.

Seeing how mad Gold was Spenser hesitated a little. He closed his file and motioned Gold to sit down. Gold did not then Spenser verbally had to mention it.

"Have a seat Mr. Gold".

He jerked the chair and sat on it with a thud and was staring at Spenser now.

"Ok. David is a very smart guy. He worked really hard and trust me he got noticed by everyone. A lot of people recommended that he be given a promotion but I kept it on hold till you got back. But then Regina convinced me and the other board members to move David. Trust me I couldn't help it. As usual you must have missed David and my emails."

At the mention of emails Gold made a mental note to never miss any emails even if they are spam. _Alrite that was way too much but at least not to avoid emails from anyone within the company. _

Gold only nodded this time and then he remembered about the new assistant.

"I get that shit Spenser but why give Regina the authority to hire a new assistant for me?"

Gold reasoned, still staring at Spenser.

Spenser fidgeted a bit and then started

"Regina offered her help promising to find someone who was equally talented and capable as David for your service. And she did find someone the next day itself."

"Next day?!" Gold exclaimed with a surprise.

"Yes, the very next day. That person has done a major in actuarial science from MIT and a minor in analytical computing, worked overseas…I believe in China and South America and is well versed in several languages. We couldn't deny that the person seemed more qualified than David. So we accepted the proposal. Don't worry, it's a three months contract and if you are satisfied we can make it permanent. Otherwise you can find someone else within this time period."

Spenser was clearly trying hard to convince and please Gold. But Gold couldn't stop thinking of how he was played by Regina. _She played it really well but not for long._ He realized that his carelessness was also a part of this new problem otherwise he could have avoided Regina from winning.

"Alrite Spenser. Who is this new assistant and when can I meet him?" Gold asked defeated.

"I don't know whether it's a he or a she but I think they should be here by 10"

"Really Spenser!?"

Gold gave up by now and he got up from the chair and started towards his office.

_Oh boy! I need a glass of whiskey… a whole bottle would do right now if the company rules allowed._

But then Gold settled down for a piping hot cup of coffee instead of whiskey because unfortunately the last bottle in his cupboard was empty_. _According to the company policy employees are not allowed to drink but this was one of the perks of being Mr. Gold._ Bloody hell with that witch Regina._

ooo0ooo

Gold reached his cube with a strong hot cup of coffee in his hands and totally clueless and dazed about whatever was happening around him. And definitely was fuming with rage inside.

Agreed David is an optimistic, charming (coincidental surname?!), intelligent ass of a guy. He was a huge help for Gold. He handled most of the technical issues in the sales department, covered most of the projects that Gold was handling so that Gold could concentrate on his actual job that is deal-making, acquisition and new contracts for the company. He doesn't want to get involved in the technical or IT aspect of the company… heck those were not even his territory to start with.

They were just dropped into his lap after Henry Mills, Sales and Marketing Manager, met with an accident and passed away. Anything related to sales was handled by Gold and Marketing was given to Regina. Based on their performance the next Finance Vice President would be announced. It's some sort of a stupid test to see if we can fare well under such pressure and competition.

Gold's going to miss David a lot even though he doesn't want to admit it openly. But at least now there is someone to handle the sales and IT bullshit. As long as it's out of his way he is glad but there is a ton of workload to be done before the vice president announcement and Gold is actually lagging behind while Regina pulled out a tricky deal with Maleficent Corp. _That punk head had to leave me now? Right when I actually need him more and when I am due for that big leap. _

Gold was so upset that he didn't realize that Jeff had come to his cabin to check if I was doing ok. Gold waved his hand shooing him away. He lazily slumped into his chair and tried to concentrate on his work (whatever that was on his desk). By then Jeff had gone back to his work leaving the door open as usual.

"Mr. Gold?"

Gold did not realize how long he sat there at his desk brooding about the day's events ignoring the pile of work in front of him. He was turned around in his chair overlooking the parking lot from his window. He thought he heard someone speak, a female voice. He ignored it the first time thinking that whoever it was would leave if there was no response from him. Then again.

"Mr. Gold?"

_Good heavens! I don't want to handle another jerk right now. Go away._

He thought they must be looking for David so he lazily replied.

"David is in the third floor go to him for any issues." Oh _please go away girl._

"Umm…..actually I'm looking for Mr. Stanley Gold."

Gold rolled his eyes in frustration and slowly turned around in his chair sneering thinking probably that would scare her away.

"What is that you….." _OH BLOODY HELLS OF HELL._ Gold froze when he looked at the girl standing at the door.

"Mr. Gold! Looks like I am at the right place huh?! I am your new assistant"

"Belle!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

As soon as Belle saw Mr. Gold she lost all her professional demeanor and beamed expectantly at him.

"Mr. Gold! Looks like I am at the right place huh?! I am your new assistant"

Belle could hardly hear what Gold said or maybe he just opened his mouth in surprise Belle thought otherwise. Either way Belle was too overwhelmed to see Gold after such a long time. What was it five or six years since they had last seen each other? Belle had no clue how to react to his expression. He looked like a deer caught in a headlight. After a slight hesitance she tried to smile again but then immediately Gold's face turned into a more professional one; stone-faced and no-nonsense attitude. She was well aware of that expression. Back in the days that particular face was reserved for everyone else except her.

"Yes. Come in. Miss….." Gold adjusted in his chair a bit and then gestured her to sit down in one of the chairs across his table.

_All right if he wants to play the stranger game then so be it. _

"Isabelle French." Belle offered

Belle kept the door open and sauntered in. Within the few seconds that she took to walk from the door to the chair she had a quick look at Gold. He looked quite handsome in a fitted three piece suit. The shirt and tie were deep purple in color but the tie had thin silver stripes running diagonally. He had the same long hair but with more gray with a few strays falling over his beautiful brown eyes. He clearly looked exhausted and it showed in his eyes. He fidgeted with the papers on the table and then clasped his hands together ready for business. Belle gently put her handbag next to the offered chair and sat down.

There was an eerie silence between them for a couple of minutes and then Gold cleared his throat still looking down at his clasped hands and spoke.

"Miss. French, I assume that you are aware of the importance of the position that you will be working from now on?"

"Yes. I am."

"Good. Very good." He pursed his lips and nodded his head in understanding.

"Very well then… I will take you to your cube and let Jeff get you a workstation and inform Mr. Charming, one who was holding your position previously, to help you get acquainted with your duties."

Belle opened her mouth to ask if he wanted to interview her but then Gold got up and started walking towards the door and gestured her to follow him. Belle grabbed her bag and hurried behind Gold not before her hand hit something but then she disregarded it and kept walking.

They reached Belle's cube, which looked quite descent and clean. There were a few scattered office supplies and some empty files neatly stacked in a corner. There was ample amount of desk space and shelves both over the head and under the desk. There was an additional chair for another person to sit down and discuss; that's good so she doesn't have to run around looking for a meeting room or have someone hover her. The cube was surrounded by grey walls on all four sides about four and a half feet in height. This was a standard design in many offices. The entrance was wide enough for two average persons to get in together and it gave a good view of Gold's cabin. She wondered if this was intentional. _That's not possible he looked quite surprised when he saw her that meant he wasn't expecting her to be here. _But then she realized that this was her predecessor's cube not a new rubbing off that thought they continued towards Jeff's cube. Throughout the rest of the walk Gold maintained a respectable distance, while talking he motioned at things with his right hand keeping the other one in his pocket and never dare look at her. After the initial introduction Gold left her with Jeff or Jefferson saying that he had a meeting to attend. Belle kept staring at the walking away figure of Gold.

_Boy! He still has that sexy swagger. _

She pulled herself back to whatever Jeff was trying to say after Gold disappeared from her view. Thankfully Jeff didn't notice the change of emotions on Belle's face after Gold left them.

"So are you new to New York?" Jeff asked.

"Mmmm…not exactly. I have been here for couple of business meetings in the past." Belle had this sudden urge to rush back and watch Gold from her cube. But then that would make her look crazy.

"It's a great place for young people." He did a weird one-eyed brow dance. _Ok what was that for?_ Belle pretended to be interested in his conversation but all she wanted was to go back.

"Really?"

"Yup. New York night life rocks. Hey how about you join me this Friday to have a glimpse of New York." Jeff said with a wide smile on his face.

"That's so nice of you Jeff. Probably some other time. I just moved to New York in a hurry and still have to get all my belongings together. I'm staying in a hotel for the time being till I find a proper place to stay. So till then I would be busy." Belle shrugged.

"Oh. Not a problem. If you need any help you can call me whenever you want."

"Sure. I will. Thank you for the help though." Belle really started to listen to him now after he offered her help.

"You know what, why don't you go back to your cube and relax. While I'll go and get all the tools needed to fix your workstation and then we can continue with our talk. What say?"

"Sure. Why not." Belle gave him a wide smile and walked towards her cube. Relieved that finally she can be alone with her thoughts even though for a few minutes. She came back and was disappointed to notice that Gold's cabin door was closed and the blinds to his glass window were pulled over. _Oh yes. He said he was going to be in a meeting_. She remembered her former manager doing the same thing whenever he was in a meeting. Belle put her bag on top of the desk and idly started prodding the cupboards and shelves.

Within a few minutes Jeff showed up with a monitor, CPU, couple of cables and a telephone for her desk. He was a heavy built man at least a feet taller than Belle so it wasn't that difficult for him to carry all the equipment. He left again to bring in couple of other devices for her workstation. He came back immediately and started putting things together starting with the work phone. Every now and then he would pop his head from his work and ask questions about her and offered his help again to show her around New York. Belle sweetly declined his help _again_ and answered all his other questions sincerely but vaguely specially leaving out details of Gold and her. After a while Belle started getting a feeling that he was purposefully slowing his work to flirt with her, every now and then coaxing her for going out, because it was already thirty minutes and he had ended up fixing only her work phone. Once the phone was done he turned towards her workstation and started working on it. Jeff kept her amused with his Friday rendezvous, Gold- Regina war, David's secret affair and the girls in the third floor, whom he likes to sweetly call as 'damsels', and on and on he went. He was doing a good job of entertaining her and Belle on her part was enjoying everything, every now and then erupting in peals of laughter.

"So is everything good in here Miss. French?"

They both turned at once towards the voice. Gold was standing at the cube entrance and looking warily at her incomplete workstation. He then pointed a finger at Jeff and then to his incomplete work.

"I thought you were not interested in doing these things nowadays. Isn't it one of your interns job to do such…. menial task?"

"C'mon Gold I was just trying to help this beautiful lady here." Belle blushed at the mention of 'beautiful lady'." I am trying to make her feel comfortable as much as possible before she has to deal with you and the rest of the…..dignitaries." Jeff replied. That did not seem to go well with Gold as he narrowed his eyes on Jeff and mumbled something under his breath.

"I am leaving for the day." Gold started and was still staring at Jeff.

"Oh" Both Belle and Jeff said in unison. He shifted his gaze from Jeff to the unfinished workstation.

"And I….. have informed David about your arrival and he will help you with anything that is needed after the lunch break. So you have a good day Miss. French…. and Jeff." Then he turned and left immediately.

_Hmmm…..and there goes that sexy swagger again._

All of a sudden the place felt empty. Though Belle knew that she shouldn't feel this way about Gold but then she couldn't help her feelings take over any practical notion coming from her mind. But then thankfully Jeff distracted her from her thoughts and suggested that they go to the cafeteria for lunch. Belle did not protest as she really was hungry and also wanted to check the cafeteria. So they both left the incomplete workstation for now and headed towards the cafeteria. It was a simple place with a simple menu for breakfast and lunch. There was a salad bar in a corner, a coffee station right next to it, couple of vending machines, microwave ovens and refrigerator to keep lunch boxes. Jeff explained that many of the employees usually go out to have lunch as they are in the middle of Manhattan and surrounded by every other local and ethnic restaurants. He added that he would have taken her out for lunch but then he has a meeting immediately after lunch and reminded Belle that even she has to meet David. He then went on to tell Belle of the different places they can visit to get their lunch once Belle settles down. Belle only smiled at him. As for the lunch, Belle had a simple turkey sandwich with pickles on the side and Jeff opted for a chicken sandwich with coke and four chocolate chip cookies. He said he would have those cookies during the meeting.

After their lunch was done they headed back to work. They reached their destination and Jeff promised to come back after the meeting is done to fix her workstation and if he couldn't then he would send one of his interns to do the job. Before leaving he gave Belle one of his chocolate chip cookies as a welcome gesture, Belle happily took it and thanked him for being so sweet just like his cookies. He grinned like a school boy and then left her alone. Belle settled down in her chair and with nothing else to do except wait for David to show up she took her smartphone and texted Regina informing that she has formally joined Regal Eagle Inc. and thanked her for the job offer. Jeff informed her that Regina had to stay back at home for her sick son. She didn't have anything else to do so she continued to update her status on all the social networks and then made an offshore call to China. Then she started looking for a temporary accommodation on her phone. Mulan had gifted Belle with the latest Apple iPhone before she left China and Belle was really appreciating the benefit of having a smartphone right now, what with her workstation still lying in shambles.

Belle had shortlisted couple of places that were offering a short term lease of three to six months but the advances for those apartments were quite high. But Belle thought with some negotiation she may be able to bring down the price a little bit, well isn't that what she usually does in requisitions. To be true she hardly had to stay alone after her father had passed away. After that she stayed with Mulan's family who lived close to her college. Then after a few months Mulan's family left for China while she stayed back for her internship. That was the only time she had stayed alone and it was disastrous, every night she would wake up with a bad dream and have sleepless nights, to counteract them she started seeing a therapist and taking some pills. But it didn't help her much so she took a break from her job to go and visit Mulan and her family in China. All the nightmares stopped and she was really happy and content living there. Belle decided that she would stay there little longer and so got a job in a firm that dealt with mergers and acquisitions. She joined as an intern and then slowly picked up the trade. Because of her excellent English-speaking and writing skills the firm considered as an advantage when dealing with foreign clients and thus she used to travel to various countries along with the lawyers.

Although Mulan was happy that Belle was doing great career wise but from a relationship stand-point she was a big loser. She setup several dates for her but none of them worked out. Belle always felt there was something missing in them….well if she kept comparing them all to Gold then yes; they did…none of them reached her expectation. Mulan knew that Belle was still lingering on to Gold's thoughts. So when Mulan knew that Belle would be working for Gold instead of stopping her she gave her approval to the idea. She felt that maybe in this way Belle will be able to rekindle their relationship or else get a chance to meet someone else in the big city. Either way she felt that it was a win-win situation. Otherwise she always has China to go back to.

With a sigh Belle closed the browser and started playing a game of Angry Birds. She had completed two levels and then there was a tap on her desk.

"I believe you must be Miss. French. Hi, I am David Charming. Gold must have mentioned about me"

Belle put down her mobile on the desk and rose to greet him.

"Yes, I am. Nice to meet you Mr. Charming."

"Thank you and you too."

David glanced at her incomplete workstation and shook his head, pursing his lip.

"Hmmmm…your computers not ready yet? It hardly takes twenty minutes to get it setup. What happened?"

"Oh. That. Jeff was working on it. He got a meeting to attend…so that's why. You know…." She trailed.

David shook his head in disbelief and with an assured tone said.

"Don't worry. If it's not fixed by today evening I will personally see to it. I cannot show you everything without your computer up and running. I will see that you get a laptop too because you will need it when you are working with Gold."

"That's really nice of you Mr. Charming" he really is living up to his surname belle thought.

"Oh no. please… call me David. Charming sounds very mmmm….. Cheesy. You know…"

Belle laughed at that and gave an understanding nod.

"All right why don't I first give you a tour of this place and then go to my desk and show you your work?"

"Yes, sure that will be great." Answered Belle and stood to leave with David when he spoke again.

"You like angry birds huh!? I love that game. Got addicted after Ma…..ummmm my friend introduced it to me."

"I'm not crazy about games but this one really got me hooked in. Wish if we could add a picture of the person we dislike on those pigs then it would be even more fun to play with."

Belle said amusingly. And At this David started laughing out loud.

"Yup and I would put Mr. Gold's picture on it. Definitely."

Belle frowned at this and felt bad for Gold that people still thought of him as a bad man or a beast that he used to claim to be. This alarmed David and he tried to assure her.

"Oh no. Don't worry. He is not that bad. You will know that eventually."

He continued.

"He can be grumpy at times but if you stick to your work and finish off the task that he gives you without goofing around then everything will be smooth for you….. mmmm once you start working with him you will know….."

He was trying hard to portray Gold in a nice way so that Belle won't freak out.

"That's All right. I have worked with people worse than him. Trust me. I can handle it."

Belle assured him and at this David seemed to relax and then he directed her towards the corridor for the company tour.

It took around half an hour to go through most parts of the building and introducing her to people with whom Belle might work in the future and then took her to his office on the third floor. They reached his cabin which was overlooking the rest of the staff. He offered her a chair and guided her to sit closer to him to watch whatever he was showing on the screen. Throughout the session he explained more about the Gold and his deals. At one point he moved behind and pulled out a bunch of files from his drawer and handed them over to Belle saying that those were the files that he was last working on before he was moved to the third floor. The rest of them can be found in Gold's cabin. And any other information could be found in the company database. He gave her the passwords to these files and requested her to change them once she had access to them. It was a routine security drill. Once David was sure that he had explained everything to Belle he took her back to her cube carrying all the files with him. He placed them on Belle's desk and made sure that if she had any doubts she could drop by his cabin or contact him anytime during the office hours and he would help her out as much as he can and then left her wishing her all the best.

Belle was again alone but at least she had something to do before Jeff or one of his interns showed up. She still had two more hours to go before leaving to her hotel. So she sat there and started studying the files. After around thirty minutes a young guy with thick spectacles and bedraggled hair showed up at her desk saying that Jeff's meeting got extended indefinitely and that's why he was here.

Belle only nodded and let the boy do the work. She was amazed how fast the boy completed his job. David was right it took hardly ten minutes for this kid to get everything setup, Belle even logged into her system, did the necessary changes that David had suggested and later profusely thanked the boy for his help. The boy for his own good started blushing bright pink at her gesture. Belle was so happy to finally have her computer working that she didn't notice the boy's awkward departure.

She then set out to take print outs of couple of places she would visit for a place to stay and then she got ready to leave. Jeff was still in his meeting. _Boy that's a long meeting! _So she just waved him a good bye and then left the building.

By the time Belle reached her hotel she was way too tired and just wanted to crash on the bed. She walked back to her room passing the room next to her that had a "Do not disturb" sign on the door knob. She entered her room, threw all her belongings and headed straight to the bathroom. She took a long shower, changed into her pajamas and then sunk into her bed trying to sleep but all that she could do was think about the day's events. She quietly analyzed them all in her mind; Work was ok. It was similar to the one she had done before added with additional computing work. But that did not matter…she was really good with computers so she brushed them aside. Finding a place was getting tougher…..maybe she should ask someone at work for more information and maybe someone already knows a place….."

"Yes"

Belle shot up from her bed and stared at the wall. _What the hell was that?_

And then again

"OH Yes"

Belle realized those were the sounds of passion

Belle: "Oh oh….."

Lady: "Oh Yes…..faster"

Belle: "Shit no"

Lady: "Yes…..that's it faster baby…..right there honey. Yes. Yes. Yes…"

"For heaven's sake no."

That woman coupled with the bed creaking and that ass of a man's grunts wasn't helping her to think. She just stared at the ceiling waiting for the "wall" to calm down. And then there was one last cry and everything went calm. Belle relaxed and focused on sleeping.

But then her thoughts drifted towards Gold and everything that happened today. She had gone through the whole this a thousand times today thinking how hot he looked even with that poker face. His appearance did not change much except for his hair grown an inch longer and his clothes more expensive and classy. He used to wear plain colored shirts (mostly white) and jackets that got replaced by expensive three piece suits and silk shirts…..well his position demanded such an attire and he does look quite handsome in them. He even replaced his glasses with contacts or maybe he did a laser…he did not want to look the nerdy type anymore. His personality did not change a bit, always wanting to scare people. He definitely looked damn sexy when she first saw him and that threw her off balance. She felt like ripping those clothes off of him and having her way with him right on that sturdy desk of his. Would that desk be strong enough to take all the thumping…..? Hmmm she will have to check on it the next time she gets a chance to explore his office. Belle's body was getting heated at that thought of Gold all over her, his hands roaming her back, exploring her curves and kissing her madly and …..

"Oh good heavens…..Yes!" Creak. Grunt. "There?" the male voice asked her.

"Not again." Cried Belle trying to cover her ears in vain with a pillow. "This is going to be the worst night of my life"

"Yes. That's the spot. Yes. Yes…..oh Yeeees!" creak. Creak. Creak. Heavy grunt.

"Ohhhh my…Ohhhh my….."

With a scream the lady calling out her lovers name and the man with a grunt reached their climax.

Belle said a silent 'Thank God' and tried to sleep again. What was she thinking earlier? Oh ok about Gold, a desk and…. Wait a second she shouldn't be thinking about him in this way right now, it can cause unnecessary trouble for her. Darn she should never let her guard down around Gold. Belle had tried several times during her college days to express her true feelings to Gold, sometimes through flowers, touches, smiles, even dressing provocatively once. Belle thought maybe being teaching had made Gold blind towards these subtle gestures and instead she should have just cornered him and just be point blank with him.

She still wondered why Gold left the college abruptly at the end of the finals and the last thing she knew he had actually decided not to come back again. She tried to reach him through phone calls and emails but there was never a response from him.

Belle felt that she should just go to sleep without thinking too much about Gold. She also has to get up early in the morning for work. But the harder she tried to sleep, even with the fatigue wearing her out, she couldn't help her mind straying between Prof. Gold and Mr. Gold. And the damn wall wasn't helping her much. So she got up from her bed and searched for the nerve-relaxing medicine that Mulan had packed for her. Once she fished it out from her bag she threw two of them into her mouth without taking any water and swallowed them. She lay down and started counting the "Yes" coming from the wall till the meds started working its magic and then she dozed off.

**Thanks for the reviews guys. **

**Thanks Lattelady, Twyla Mercedes, tigger64, All Hallow's Eve31, TeamTHEFT and juju0268. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It's a beautiful spring afternoon. People were jostling through the streets of Manhattan to get their afternoon lunch and Gold is sitting in a bar having his second drink. The sun's warmth had put on a grey shadow on the busy pavements by the time Gold came out of the main entrance of Regal Eagle Inc. There was every kind of savory smell lingering in the atmosphere from the nearby eateries that would have tempted anyone to have at least a bite out of them but Gold was in no mood for savory bites, he would prefer the soothing golden ambrosia to melt away the worries cramping his head right now. With each sip he took all he wanted to do is to drown out the temptress, Belle, from his mind and regain his sanity so as to think of a plan. She really had the nerve to come back into his life at the wrong time and in the wrong way.

This is a crucial phase in his career, to make that few steps up the ladder, slyly remove Regina from his path and bring Regal Eagle Inc. completely under his power. To him power is everything. And the kind of money this power would bring to him is unimaginable. He has always preferred being a shadow player because he loved his privacy too much. He knew that he had a firm grip around Spenser but by the induction of Regina, a few years back; a foolish mistake that Gold made, Spenser and the other board members have begun to sway to her every whim. But not a while back these very good-for-nothing board members cowered and scuttled away from him in fear. But with the backup of Regina things have changed in Regal Eagle Inc. People dare to spat their opinions and decisions on his face without his consent and he doesn't like it even a bit. He needs to show them who the Boss is before things go out of control and all his hard work coming to nothing.

He has been working hard to bring in a major deal that would add a couple of billion dollars to Regal Eagle Inc. It's a deal that has never been heard of before in the history of acquisitions in the construction business. He had to keep this secretive till everything regarding the deal falls into place. He is confident about it. No. He knows that the deal is almost sealed, the party cannot back track on him otherwise they know there will consequences. He knows that he is worse than Regina if situations demanded but usually his uncanny foresight and business acumen did the job pretty well.

Regina has been lying low since their spat regarding a deal in Canada that went awfully wrong. It would have made Regal Eagle Inc. to lose a substantial amount and a bad reputation but Gold was able to salvage the deal and instead of him taking the credit, he let Regina have that small piece of cake. But then out of nowhere she brought the deal in Maleficent Corp; no one knew that she was working on it in the first place. Everyone has to project their yearly targets during the annual meeting and if Spenser had known about the deal then he would definitely have informed Gold about it. But even he was sidelined. When questioned, she conveniently excused herself saying that it happened all of a sudden that even she was surprised by the outcome of the deal. And surprisingly Mr. Henry Mills died exactly a day before the deal was signed by consuming alcohol with poison. Coincidence, who knows? She even took Gold's teaching absence as a way to move David and leave him piled with unnecessary work that could derail his plans. And now bringing Belle into this game, this can't be coincidence! Going by what Belle did to him he cannot even trust her. By the way how does Regina know Belle? Is she spying for her? If so, then why?

At that thought he tossed down the remaining liquor into his mouth and directed the bartender for another one. It's not surprising to find someone in a bar in the middle of the noon in Manhattan but if it was in Maine then, yes, people would think that there's something wrong with you. Gold smirked at that thought and took a sip from the glass. His mind now relaxed a bit and surprisingly he had not notice the romantic song being played in the background. That reminded him of the days when he was teaching Belle in Storybrooke college.

Gold remembered Belle as a short, comely, sweet looking, and an accident-prone girl. She had broken more objects in his office than he can count starting with his expensive Chinese tea cup. She was scared that she had upset him and was apologizing him with those big blue eyes blurred with unshed tears, biting her lower lips nervously. To calm her down he said that it was just a cup, he could replace it. She intrigued him. Everyone in the campus hated him, loathed him for his relentless criticism and strict punctuality. Many of the students made sure to avoid taking his class but some never had that luck and they barely made out of _The Beast's lair_. That's how bad his reputation was. Not only students even the staff feared him for his volatile behavior and his knack for finding faults in everyone, he didn't even spare the college dean.

But this girl…..Belle… he could never figure her out. How could she be so nice to him in spite of who he is? She always wore that sweetest smile on her face to approach him, a genuine smile that had the power to tame any beast. She used to bring all types of flowers, specially roses, from her flower shop to cheer him up during his worst days, sometimes they would sit together for hours in his office discussing about a subject, it didn't matter how trivial or important it was. He used to look forward for her company and when he missed not seeing her even for a day. He would become agitated with everything and everyone around him and sometimes drown himself in liquor. He had no idea what these feelings were and why it should happen to him at this age.

He had no idea of when his feelings turned from affection and caring to something more carnal. Probably the day when she wore that sleeveless dark blue netted dress that fell just a little above her knees. She bent over his desk trying to reach out for his newspaper. Her plunging neckline gave him a delightful view of her cleavage. And then she dragged her chair closer to him to discuss the current trends in the finance market. She would slightly lean towards him, her arms brushing his arms, so that she could show him what she was reading in the newspaper and Gold could smell the faint rose perfume from her body. He could hardly contain himself every time she touched him or smiled at him as if it was totally normal to do such things. His whole body was responding to her closeness and the heat was transmitted from his upper body to his groin. He wasn't even concentrating at the newspaper instead was thinking of ways to ravish her right there. Finally it became too difficult for him to handle it and then jerked from his chair, excused himself and ran towards the restroom. On the way he chastised himself for acting like a teenager towards a girl who was old enough to be his daughter. Yes, that was the first time when he started having feelings for her, lusted for her.

Every day would be a battle for Gold after that incident to control himself from his perverseness. Gold always feared that one day he would cross the line and hurt Belle. He got so disturbed with that thought that he started seeing Dr. Hopper, a therapist, for help. He also started keeping his distance from Belle and he even tried to go out on a blind date to distract from Belle. But nothing worked out, in turn it only became worse, he got hurt in the whole process, he felt betrayed. That's when he decided to move out of Storybrooke forever, never to come back again.

But seems like fate had other plans in store for him. The one thing he tried to run away from has chased him back to Manhattan. No matter…..he has seen worse than these to begin with. He can handle Belle and her distractions, he assured himself. It's only three months and then he will be free of her. He can deal with it. But he will have to think of ways to avoid her and keep a distance, which is going to be tough when she is sitting right across his cabin and working for him. They will have to interact occasionally for work reasons. The romantic songs were not helping Gold much so he drowned the remaining whiskey, tipped the bartender and exited the bar. He needed a more private place to think over this issue. He felt home was the best place to do that and he drove towards his abode.

Gold reached his pink mansion within a few minutes. He parked his Cadillac in the garage. He entered the house and threw the car keys in the bowl placed on the side of the foyer, and lazily retreated towards his study. After reaching his study, he threw his jacket and the waist coat onto the lounge that sat close to the window. He loosened the tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. He removed the cufflinks and folded back the hands of his shirt till his elbow. He then turned towards the cabinet behind the study table and then pulled out the half-finished scotch bottle and a glass. After pouring a decent amount alcohol in the glass, he walked towards the lounge and slumped on it. He took a sip from his glass and at once felt relaxed. Nothing like a neat glass of scotch, Gold thought.

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After leaving Belle with Jeff, Gold came back to his office still shaken by her presence. His foot hit something on the carpet and he bend to see what it was. It was a crocodile figurine in patented leather that was gifted to him by one of his rivals as a token of peace. Then it hit his mind that Belle had accidentally brushed it from his table while trying to get up to follow him. She must have ignored it in the hurry. He smiled to himself at the thought of her clumsy nature.

_She has not changed a wee little bit_.

He picked up the figurine and placed it back on the table. Good Lord! Now he will have to Belle-proof his office immediately if he has to survive the next three months with her. He thought his objects may be safe but what about him? With that thought he walked towards the window, pulled the blinds and closed the door to try to relax.

After a while Gold heard Belle giggling outside his office. Now the giggles turned into squeals of laughter. Gold was anxious to know the reason for Belle's happiness. He walked to his window and slowly pulled over the blinds, slow enough not to get noticed. He stood there staring at the happy Belle. She looked so much like the care free girl that he had known. She was sitting on the desk and her right side was facing Gold. He too smiled when she laughed. How much did he want her to laugh for him! He shook his head to ward off that feeling and walked towards her but had no idea of what to say. He then saw Jeff meddling with some tools and realized that Belle was having a good time because of Jeff and this made him upset. Deep in his heart he was still possessive about Belle. He knows Jeff and his philandering ways. Also knowing Belle's past he doesn't want to have legal complication in his office right under his nose. At that very moment he knew what to do with Jeff.

After walking away from the Belle's cubicle he went straight to a meeting room and placed a call to the Brazil office, Regal Eagle's recent addition.

"This is Regal Eagle Corporation, Brazil. How may I help you?"

"It's Mr. Gold from Regal Eagle, US. I need to speak to Ivan Fernando, director in charge, immediately"

"In a minute, sir."

After few minutes there was a nervous man responding to his call.

"aaaa…hello Mr. Gold. How are you? How can I help you, sir?"

Gold felt unnecessary responding to that question and hit it right on the point.

"How's the transition coming up Mr. Fernando?"

"It is coming up good…sir. It will take couple of more weeks to completely merge our systems with yours…sir" faltered Fernando.

"That's not good for me Mr. Fernando. I need to have access to your systems immediately. I doubt that there was some…important information that we missed when we sealed the deal. I know that it doesn't make any sense right now but you don't want me to waste my time coming to Brazil and check them…. right Mr. Fernando?" warned Gold.

There was a momentary silence on the other end and Gold feared that Fernando must have got a heart-attack. He was a stubby man with a weak heart but very efficient in handling the entire Brazil branch.

"Mr. Fernando, I don't want you to die on my face through a communication device."

At this there was a clearing of throat and some hustling in the background.

"I apologize, Mr. Gold. I assure you that there were no discrepancies, sir. Believe me, sir. We have gone through the whole paper work personally. Even if there were any I am sure that we can sort it out."

"I wish to believe the same Mr. Fernando. But I want to check your files personally. You remember Mr. Jefferson from the US head office right?"

"Yes, sir. He helped us secure our systems."

"Yes, that's the one. So what I want you to do is, make him work on this request right away and inform him that this is a level 1 issue. He will understand. Did you get me Mr. Fernando?"

"Yes, sir. Got it. I will call him right away." Fernando replied nervously.

"Excellent. You have a good day Mr. Fernando"

"You too sir. You too."

Gold disconnected the call satisfied that he successfully distracted Jeff from Belle for a few days. He had no clue of why he did that but never the less he was happy and then he headed straight towards downtown Manhattan to get a drink.

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Gold was still musing about the day's events when his phone buzzed. He had put that darned object to vibration mode right after he ended the Brazil call. He remembered his decision to not ignore any messages or emails from Regal Eagle Inc. There were several missed calls from Spenser and couple of messages inquiring his whereabouts. He hated Spenser's inability to take care of simple tasks and he wondered maybe that's why the company never progressed till Gold joined the firm. As soon as he saw his message he wanted to backslide on his resolution. But then he did not want anyone coming knocking at his door in the middle of the night so he went ahead and updated his office outlook status to Out Of Office (OOO). That should do. He was replying to Spenser's message when his phone rang. It was Spenser. But then can he be so lucky?

"What?" Gold shouted

"Where are you? You are supposed to be in the board meeting today?"

Ah the board meeting, Gold sighed, a bunch of baboons blabbering and bickering to each other for sixty whole minutes, ending in nothing but chaos. Such a waste of time!

"I am not interested in baboon talk, Spenser" he sneered on the phone.

"I know you don't like all these board meetings but you and Regina are the fighting for the finance vice-president position. It's better that you attend these meetings and impress these…..baboons, whatever that you call."

Gold sighed deeply. He is right but he doesn't want to lick their sorry asses to get to that position. Heck these so called board members didn't even exist when he joined Regal Eagle Inc. It was only after the company went public that these idiots started showing up in the board room. But unfortunately he has no choice in this matter and he complied with Spenser's request.

"I'm at home Spenser. I will use the video conference" Gold replied lazily pinching his between his eyes.

"All right, that should do for today. Even Regina will do video conference. So you both are good."

With that Spenser was out of his back. He checked the time and thought he still had fifteen more minutes. He switched on his home computer and tried connecting to the office network. He doesn't want to switch on the camera lest someone sees him in his unkempt state and the entire image that he build will go out the window. He just has to let them know of his presence that's it.

Finally he was online and could see everyone present in the boardroom getting ready to upset him. Gold heard whatever they had to say and replied whenever he felt necessary. And then Regina started rambling against him and the board members looked more than happy to support her. They were happy because she bought in a huge contract by bringing in Magnificent Corp. This kept on going for a while, by then Gold had opened another bottle of scotch and started drinking from it directly. Gold decided not to speak anything against Regina for today as he felt the alcohol had started to kick in. He prayed that the meeting would end soon so that he could just go to his bedroom and sleep.

Gold had almost completed the other bottle too and, swinging and swaying, Gold left the study and reached his bedroom. He placed the bottle on the bed stand with his unsteady hands crashed onto his bed.

Gold jerked in his sleep to the sound of glass breaking. He thought he was dreaming but then again the same shattering sound with a thud. He opened his dazed eyes and tried to focus on the source of the sound. He saw a person walking towards his bedroom and then….

"Belle!" Gold was shocked beyond imagination. He was unable to put in words what he was looking at. Belle was leaning to his door frame smiling at him. She was wearing the same clothes… that tempting figure hugging black skirt and white silk blouse and matching cardigan. She slowly started removing her cardigan in a sensual way. Gold's eyes just popped out and his throat went dry watching her remove her cardigan and revealing her pale skin. He was still lying in his bed, too paralyzed with the liquor to get up and stop her from doing anything regrettable.

"What…" Gold cleared his throat "How did you get in Belle? And what are you doing here?" He slurred.

"Shhhhhh….." Belle shushed him. She unbuttoned her silk shirt and slid her skirt on the floor. She must have abandoned her heels somewhere in between, Gold did not remember, he was still looking at her with amazement. Then she walked over his bed and sat next to him. She was wearing lace under garments in black. Gold wet his lips at the visual and took a gulp in nervousness and then she spoke. He could see in the dim light how dark the blue in her eyes have become with lust and he loved it absolutely.

"I am sorry Prof. Gold that I hurt you. I didn't mean to. I tried looking for you everywhere to apologize and make it up with you but I couldn't find you anywhere. It's as if, you just vanished in thin air."

"But now that I am here I will make every fantasy of yours come true. I will make you very happy."

Saying this, Belle got up and started straddling Gold. Gold had no time to think what was coming up next. As soon as she was on top of him he felt his erection wanting to free itself and get inside Belle. Belle understood his need and freed his erection and started massaging it through its length. Gold closed his eyes and concentrated on what Belle was doing. Belle smirked at his reaction and quickly removed her lace underwear and took the whole length inside her. As soon as he entered her he started jerking into her. He wanted to say something, to stop her, to kiss her, to touch her but all he could do was selfishly lie there and enjoy Belle take control. With a few more quick strokes Gold knew he was coming to his climax and then shamelessly emptied himself inside Belle.

He opened his eyes groggily and the one word that came out of his mouth was.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit"

He was holding his cock in his hand with all the cum splattered over his clothes and that's when he realized that it was all a dream. A dream he used to dream when he was Belle's professor. He staggered from his bed to go to the bathroom to take a cold shower. As soon as he put his foot on the ground he felt something hard, he took a closer look and saw shards of glasses and the table lamp broken along with it. He must have hit them in his sleep while twisting and turning in the bed. So that was the sound he heard in his dream. He carefully got off the bed and headed towards the bathroom. He took a long cold shower and by the time he came out the effect of the alcohol had drained out. He was in no mood to sleep again for a while partly in fear that he would do the same act again and partly because his mind was still bothered by Belle's presence and want to find a solution to it.

He went back to his study and found the last glass of whiskey he had abandoned near the lounge before the meeting had started. He thought he will finish that last one after he arrives to a conclusion to the Belle problem. Gold was now holding the glass of whiskey in his hands, twisting it and staring into the sparkling liquid with scrunched brows looking for answers to his questions. May be it was a simple coincidence but he knows that Regina never does anything without a purpose. She was evil to the core. He knew her very well. She was not to be trusted. She always got around with her poisonous smile and clever tongue. People couldn't refuse doing deals with her because of her cunningly convincing nature and if not by that, then by any other means possible. If he goes by what Regina is capable of then either Belle is an innocent victim or else a very smart co-player. His previous episode with her points more towards the latter. If that is the case then he will have to get rid of her as soon as possible. And if she is innocent then it would still benefit her so that she is safe from Regina's claws.

Gold was pacing in his study thinking, once the idea stuck in his head he immediately started drafting a job posting. He could have used David's help but then Gold wanted to do this now. He will add more if he wanted to in the morning. Once the draft was complete Gold felt satisfied with his decision and drowned that last glass of scotch. He went back to his bedroom, crawled into his bed. While lying he could hardly stop thinking of his plan working out and then with that thought Gold fell asleep.

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**Thank you all again for the reviews. They really encourage me a lot. **

**NicoleMuenchSeidel, Stargate533, maizeblue7, Twyla Mercedes, All Hallows'Eve31, Tinuviel Undomiel and juju0268.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Belle put on whatever she could find from her suitcase, gathering all the files and her tote bag, she rushed out of the hotel room. As soon as she was out, she frantically started searching for her car keys in her bag while scrambling through the hallway towards the hotel lobby. On the way, she almost bumped onto the lady, who was coming out of the room next door. Belle hardly lifted her head and mumbled her apologies without even looking at the woman and continued to run. She finally found her car keys and bolted towards the parking lot.

Her hair was still wet with the excess water dripping all over her winter coat. She got into her car and switched on the heater, in the hope of drying her hair to a manageable level. She then raced to her new work place. Gold never liked people who are not punctual and Belle hoped that Gold wouldn't make a scene out of her.

Amazingly, it took hardly ten minutes for her to reach work. Thank goodness! For the quick thinking she showed in picking up the hotel. But even after that quick saving of time she is still late. After exiting the elevator, Belle literally ran towards her cubicle, ducking her head for cover, so as to dodge Gold's eagle eyes.

Belle reached her cubicle, and tried to look at Gold's office from the corner of her eye and saw that it still looked dark from outside. It was just the way Gold had left behind yesterday, open door and blinds pulled apart.

Gold was late too, not so much like him, Belle thought. Belle released a deep breath that she didn't know she was holding all this while. She hung her coat on the hook, and she made a revolted face at the mess her coat had become into, which by now was completely wet up to the chest area. Belle now felt conscious of her look and left for the restroom to fix it. It wasn't as if she didn't look this way before, she had become conscious of her appearance because of Gold. She wanted to look put-together for him, rather than turn him off with her shabby appearance.

It was not that bad, her hair looked somewhat dry and frizzled, face hardly had any makeup on, nose and cheeks were burning red, lips were pale and her eyes looked totally dull.

_Darn! She looked like as if she had been hit by a lightning._

_Well, that can be fixed easily._

Belle gathered up her hair into a tight ponytail, braided them and neatly tied them into a bun. There were a few flyaway here and there but that only added beauty to her up do.

She put on some lipstick and mascara and there… she was ready for the day. Once she was sure of her look, she came back to her cubicle and observed that Gold's room was still empty. Belle took this as an opportunity to go and visit Jeff; hmmm… he looked really busy yesterday.

Jeff looked really exhausted, worked out and grumpy when Belle reached his place. But as soon as he saw her, all that tiredness just vanished in thin air, and he had this wide grin plastered over his face, that Belle couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Heyyyy… beautiful, how can I help you?"

Belle was surprised with the sudden transformation but was happy to see him. He was so lively and comical in this dull atmosphere.

"Just came to say hi to you. What happened to you? Looks like you've been in a war."

"War, it is. Gold wanted to check some files with our Mexico counterpart a.s.a.p. But the network lines were not secure enough to transfer them, so had to jump in with the team to fix it. And on top of it there is this… language barrier… I really can't get them to work fast enough because of that" He sighed heavily, pouting his lips with sad eyes, he asked. "Did you miss me, my beautiful?"

"Mmmm… Nope. Not at all. One of your interns fixed my workstation faster than I expected!"

Jeff opened his mouth in surprise and placed both hands on his chest.

"What? You don't miss me already? Mmmm… next time I'm going to pay my personal attention to you, my beautiful."

"You are impossible, Jeff." Belle shook her head and both of them laughed at it.

"I was just kidding with you, Belle. Good that he took care of you, otherwise I would have had a tough time with Gold."

"I know."

"So is Mr. Beast in?" understanding her confused expression, Jeff said

"Oh. C'mon, it's Mr. Gold. That's what everyone calls him here."

Belle was clearly offended by the title but she didn't protest against it. People have named him worse than that; Old Grumpy Dragon, Prof. Alligator, Prof. Gold'n Volcano and more. Mr. Beast seems far better compared to all of them.

"No, I don't think he is in today."

"Hmmm… well must have had something important to work on. Who knows? He's a very busy man." He shrugged.

After couple of more bantering and flirting, Belle left Jeff alone with his devices. Belle wasn't exactly sure, what Gold wanted her to work on. Rather than brooding over Gold, Belle decided to go through the files set before her and get herself familiar with Regal Eagle Inc. system. May be by then she may have something to discuss about with Gold.

So Belle started skimming through the files, there were several files containing deals in each country. The ones that caught her attention were the Asian territory files and there she found three potential contracts in China, Malaysia and Singapore, that she could work with right away. These files had very limited information, except for contacts, finance and company details, there were nothing else in them. So she took those files, reread each of the related documents, researched more on the internet and then proceeded towards David's office. Belle wanted to check with David first, then talk with Gold, before starting to work on them.

"Good Morning, David" David was about to enter his office and seeing Belle, he stopped on his way inside.

"Hey Belle, A very Good Morning"

"If you are not busy, can we discuss about couple of files?"

"Sure… ummmm…Why not. Come in." David directed Belle inside his office. "Why don't you take a seat, while I start my computer to pull out more information?"

"Ok, thanks." Belle nodded her head.

Without even removing his black leather jacket, he sat down on his chair and started his computer. It was well past ten in the morning and Belle thought she will make some small talk with him while he gets ready.

"Do you usually come to office at this time?" Belle pointed him towards the clock.

"Oh. No… It's just that I got home very late and my wife's out of town." He replied shaking his head and smiling. Belle smiled nodding her head in understanding.

After a thorough discussion of the three companies, they narrowed down to the construction firms in China and Malaysia. Both of them had a lot of goodwill, clientele and a profitable future, but comparatively, the Chinese firm excelled better than the Malaysian firm in terms of knowledge base and Return of Investment. The problem here is, according to David, the Chinese firm is not ready to sell their company in their current circumstances, and if at all they want to acquiescent the company, then they may have to do a hostile takeover by buying the shares from the shareholders.

Belle disagreed with the stance, by doing a hostile takeover would only disrupt the trust from the current employees and the last she heard; the employees were fiercely loyal to the current owner, who by the way is the grandson of the owner, but also is a Harvard educated scientist. Educations in these regions are considered as sacred and the people owning it are looked up with great respect, which the current owner doesn't lack in. If at all they want to go for it then they may have to go for a merger, building a steady employee/owner relationship, acquire complete knowledge of the industry and then culminate into an acquisition.

David was clearly stumped by the knowledge that Belle displayed on mergers and acquisitions in Asia. He provided that most of takeovers that Regal Eagle Inc. did in the past were based on future profit, if that was not achieved, they usually resell the firm to the previous owner or another third party. And because of this, Regal Eagle Inc. was able to prosper in leaps and bounds within the past ten years.

Belle felt really bad of the way business was conducted in Regal Eagle Inc., all of these takeovers were ruthless considering how they did not care how these deals are going to affect people's life still working in those companies.

David tried to discourage her from further pursuing this contract and instead encouraged for the Malaysian contract, which seemed to be an accessible deal right now. But Belle had a feeling that she had come across this Chinese firm, Li Shang & sons, in the past. She has to dig out more information about them from her Chinese contacts and provide a firm argument when presenting it to Gold. She prayed that if her intuition was right, then this deal will not only help Regal Eagle Inc. in establishing a successful concrete base in Chinese construction industry but also will be a huge achievement in her career graph.

With this information in hand Belle got up to leave and there was a knock on the door.

"Hey Dave, we have trouble on line 3, Mexico office. Could you please look into it?"

Belle turned around and saw that a pixie haired girl spoke from the door and was also throwing a wide smile at David. As soon as she saw Belle she smiled at her and said "Hi" excitedly. And Belle smiled back with a hello.

"I will check on it and be right there in a minute, Mary" with that Mary took off.

"Alright, then I will be on my way. See you later, David."

"See you later, Belle"

Belle left David's office and reached her cubicle. She checked her emails for any message from Gold regarding his absence, but there was none. She then continued with her work.

* * *

Gold woke up with a nasty headache and a nauseating feeling to vomit. He tried to lie down for a few more minutes so that his eyes can adjust to the sudden burst of light from the window, but then he had to rush to the bathroom to empty his stomach. He actually felt better after getting rid of all his stomach contents, he then decided to clean himself and get ready for work. He already had missed couple of appointments today, so unlike him. He also has an important task to do today – Firing Belle.

By the time Gold reached his office, it was late in the morning, almost close to lunch time. He did not comprehend until he settled down to work, that Belle is in his office, working for him. When realization hit Gold, everything from last night came crashing down on him, the fact that he is still crazy about her.

This is not good.

He doesn't want to end up in therapy again, so as to get rid of her from his head. He did not work out on a solid plan on ousting her, he thought of lying to her, saying that he found someone else for the same position and it will take another two weeks for that person to join. Belle will have two weeks of notice and therefore look for another job. He cannot say that he was extremely distracted by her presence and his wild dreams about her were getting on to him or that he did not trust her loyalty towards him because she was hired by Regina.

The other fact remains is that he will have to find a new hire within the next two weeks.

Whatever it was, he is sticking to his resolution of removing her. He was still thinking about it when someone knocked on his door. He looked up from his deep thoughts… and there she was standing at the door, his Belle, just like in his dream last night, but with some papers in her hands. Well, that wasn't expected.

"Yes?" Gold put on his usual straight face. He was trying hard to be the Gold that everyone feared, not the one that Belle was familiar with.

"Good morning Mr. Gold"

Why is her voice so intoxicating even after so many years? Gold wondered

He had decided that he would show her the door today, but at the same time, his other part – Prof Gold, wanted her to stay, three months is a short time, he could adjust. But then what's the use? Admire her from afar, bottle up his feelings, fantasize her at night and think that she is just another seductive woman.

This is tough. This was not supposed to happen. He did not want heartbreak from the same woman.

"Morning, Miss French"

She was looking at him with a smile so vibrant that it just lighted up the whole room. Is she happy to see him? Nah! Gold thought. After the greetings, they just kept staring at each other, waiting for the other person to say something. This is awkward.

Gold then nodded his head, and waved his hand for her to continue.

"Ummmm…after you left… yesterday, I met David and we went through the whole knowledge transition."

She paused for a second and then continued.

"I have primarily worked in the Asian region for a while now and… have a fair deal of experience working there, and ample amount of information and sources that can help making better deals."

Gold was now listening to Belle with renewed interest. She definitely was going somewhere with that, he knows with experience, that Belle is a very smart woman. She had helped him in grading several papers, papers that were beyond her level, with great accuracy.

Gold's eyes occasionally drifted between her lips and eyes, not noticeable enough for Belle to get alarmed of his behavior.

"I had found three contracts that looked promising enough to pursue right now. So I went ahead and consulted with David, he helped me in narrowing down the choice to two; China and Malaysia. I chose the Chinese contract as it looked more promising than the other one, but at the same time I also need to verify couple of things before I can actually jump into it."

Gold nodded at that.

"Who is the client?"

"Li Shang & Sons in Shanghai." She answered with an uncertain face.

Gold kept repeating the clients name trying to remember the client and their details. Gold knew very well the terms and conditions of all the deals and the clients that he had ever worked with or will work on in the future. Information is vital in his field, and it should always be at the tip of your fingers. Who knows when they may come in handy!

After a few seconds of rubbing his forehead, and tapping on the table, he remembered them. They were one of the oldest and respectable family businesses in Shanghai, run by the elderly, Li Shang. He had tried to do business with Li Shang in the past, better to say that Gold had tried to buy a stake in Li's company, so that in the end he would have acquired one of the largest construction industries in Asia. But Gold was royally rejected by Li, because their business ideals did not match with each other. Li was known as a shrewd, meticulous and level-headed business man in the industry, he build his entire empire single-handedly, spreading his business to other Asian countries. He was also known to be respected and looked upon by his employees; they almost worshipped him and were very loyal to him.

Gold but all had respect towards Li for his defiance, because he clearly saw that pissing Li is like walking naked towards a beehive and stirring it.

But the same cannot be assumed about his relatives, they were least interested in Li's business and more on the money they would get after the old man dies. Li died a couple of months back leaving everything on his grandsons. The last thing gold heard about Li's grandson was that he had successfully taken over the reins of Li Shang & Sons and working hard on keeping its name intact.

Gold contemplated on the idea of Belle pursuing something that is bound to fail. Was she really telling him that she wants to work on this deal, when it was quite clear that it's not going to work at all? He was still thinking when an idea struck him.

"I remember them. So what are you suggesting… dearie?"

Belle flinched at the endearment, big blue eyes wide with shock and uncertainty.

"I… I was suggesting that if you don't have anything else for me to work on, then I would very much like to pursue this contract."

Gold thought for a moment and then responded.

"Hmmm… I don't think I have anything specific for you, Miss. French. Are you sure this is what you really want do?"

"Yes, absolutely positive about it." Belle replied with determination.

He now moved leaned towards his desk, hands on the table, staring right into her eyes and grinning.

"I have to warn you… if this deal doesn't go well, there will be repercussions. And I don't think even Regina will be able to help you."

Belle stiffly nodded at him taking in his threatening tone.

"Alright, why don't you gather the required information related to the deal and prepare for a project proposal and you will present this to me by next Monday? I think that's enough time for you to work on this deal right now and then we will move on from there."

He knew that this was going to be an utter failure. He couldn't understand how she could be so naïve and go for it. It's very clear in the documents and David must have cautioned her against it, but by the time she figures it out, it will be too late. Apart from the time and money that she is going to waste, it will eventually affect her career in a very bad way.

That can be resolved, Gold thought, he just have to not mention anything about the failed project to anyone who wants to hire her in the future. He can't let anything bad happen to her just because he couldn't get over his feelings towards her. He knows that that's not true at all.

And it's also a perfect plan to smoothly terminate her contract before the designated three months, without anyone blaming him for his insecurities, and instead blame on Regina's incompetency, and Belle's inexperience to work in a multinational company.

Belle beamed at him.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Gold. I will do my best."

Gold felt guilty about whatever he was doing to her as she smiled at him so radiantly.

_Does she even know that she is being a scapegoat in this whole plan of his?_

"Thank me, when everything goes well, dearie."

Belle's smile faltered a little and then she left.

After Belle left, Gold thanked whatever supernatural power that exists, for giving him such a brilliant idea at the right time. He will now have two birds with one shot. Gold was happy about the victory against Regina but at the same time felt bad for Belle.

* * *

Belle came back to her cubicle from her meeting with Gold. He had given his consent for the project, but she could see that it was not a wholehearted one. He called her _dearie_, which was something he used towards people he least cared about. The man she just met was calculated and scheming with no remorse for his victim.

Belle was done with seeing Gold today; she was hurt by the way he treated her. So she moved closer to her workstation so as to avoid the temptation of watching Gold work. There was a warning in his tone when he gave his consent for the deal and that scared her. She just hoped that whatever hunch she had about the deal was true. She was hundred percent sure that Li Shang & Sons were looking for a buyer, all that she had to do was verify the facts and present it to Gold. With determination that she won't let Gold have his way on this, she focused her attention to the task at hand.

She sent out emails and messages to her contacts in China for more information regarding Li Shang & Sons and then continued with preparing the project proposal.

It was time for lunch but Belle thought to stick to her cubicle and wait for the email replies. She had just finished with the draft of the proposal when her work phone rang; it was David, inviting her for lunch with his friends. Belle wanted to decline and complete her work but then she thought how helpful David was in streamlining the contracts, so she agreed to go out with them.

Belle met David at the lobby, along with two other girls, and David introduced each of them to her.

"Belle, this is Mary Margaret" She was the same girl that Belle met in David's office this morning, the dark brown, pixie haired girl with a beautiful smile.

"Hi"

"Hello"

"And Ruby" She had long brunette hair, and wore a maroon leather skirt with matching bright red lipstick. _Gosh! That color!_ She looked a little surprised.

"Hey"

"Hello"

"And this is Belle, Mr. Gold's new assistant."

They all hurried towards the closest Italian restaurant. David had already made reservations, so it did not take much time for them to find a place to sit. The conversation flowed quite easily between them, most of the time talking about work and some prodding into each other's personal lives. They placed their order and waited for it.

"So, how do you like New York?" Mary asked Belle.

"It's okay. I didn't have the chance to go around much. I am staying in a hotel right now and am searching for a place to stay. Preferably a temporary one."

"OH…But why temporary?" Mary asked with concern in her voice.

"It's a three months contract and I am not sure if they would make it fulltime or not… It will all depend on my performance… That's what I was told."

"Any luck in finding a place?"

"No. Not yet. I have been scouring through ads and checking on each of them. But it's so expensive here, even a simple studio charges in thousands, and that's just the rent, and the advance… it's just outrageous!"

"Welcome to New York, Belle!" replied Mary.

Then the waiter got their meals and everyone started eating in a comfortable silence against the backdrop of the restaurants commotion. It was either David or Mary, who kept talking to Belle, but Ruby was more interested in her food, she kept her head down most of the time. Once in a while she would lift her head to answer any questions that was asked to her and that would be a firm yes or a no, nothing more.

"Can I ask you guys a favor?" Belle hesitated and everyone encouraged her. "If you guys come across a place offering shared accommodation, will you guys inform me about that? I'm actually not in favor of staying alone. It… It creeps me out a little bit. " Belle looked sheepish, when she tried to explain it to them.

She is a grown up woman in her thirties and is afraid to stay alone. There may be other people like her out there, but somehow she felt embarrassed telling them.

Mary touched her hand assuring her, "We all have our own issues and not wanting to stay alone is not a crime." She looked at the others for support and they all nodded in unison.

Then Mary looked over at Ruby, as if asking her for permission. Ruby did not understand why and she mouthed a "what?" Ignoring her, Mary spoke.

"Actually… Ruby and I stay together in a two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. It takes around half an hour via subway to reach Manhattan." Mary made another quick glance at Ruby, but she didn't say anything, just kept staring at her plate. So Mary continued.

"We both are on a tight budget and were looking for a third roommate. Ruby and I would share the other bedroom and the third person can take the second bedroom. But half of the rent would be paid by the one taking the second bedroom and the rest will be divided between Ruby and I. If you are interested… you can move in with us."

"That's actually an excellent idea." David started "Trust me Belle, you are in safe hands if you move in with them." putting his right arm over Ruby's shoulder and pulling her towards him "she can be a little annoying and chatty, but don't mind, she is very good at heart." And then he released her. Everyone laughed at his joke.

Belle was thrilled with the idea, but Ruby didn't show the same feelings. Belle felt that Ruby didn't like her and didn't seem to be in sync with Mary for inviting her to stay with them.

"I… I am really so thankful to you, Mary… and Ruby! Give me couple of more days to think about it and I will surely get back to you."

"Definitely. Take your own time." Mary was grinning wide now.

Only if Ruby had verbally given her consent then Belle would have moved to their place by today evening. She knew that Mary had asked her in a whim but with good intention. Belle wanted to give them some time to discuss about it and hopefully by then, Belle would find a place to stay.

They all finished their lunch and headed back to work. David walked swiftly ahead and crossed the traffic. The ladies were left behind, so he waited for them in the opposite side of the street. At the next walk sign they all started crossing the street, Mary yanked Ruby behind and whispered.

"What's wrong with you Ruby? Why were you so quiet today?"

"Nothing, I will tell you later." that's the only reply Ruby gave to Mary.

Mary did not say anything and by then they had already crossed the road and were walking along with David. Belle was not far ahead but she heard the whole conversation. It doesn't look like Mary was good with whispering. Belle did not think much into it instead as soon as she reached her cubicle, she immersed herself into completing the draft.

It was eight in the evening, the whole office looked empty, and janitors were cleaning the place. She had completed the draft but there was so much more to add to it, and that cannot be done without the information from her contacts. She had nothing else to do so she reluctantly got up and left for her hotel, praying that tonight she wouldn't have to use those sleeping pills again.

**Thank you all for the reviews and support - Tinuviel Undomiel, Twyla Mercedes, All Hallows' Eve31, NicoleMuenchSeidel, Lattelady, TeamTHEFT and an anonymous Guest. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

She literally dug herself into a pile of files and legal paperwork, to create a solid acquisition proposal for Li Shang & Sons. For the past two days, she was inundated with emails and proof, giving her every detail about their businesses and their current financial situation. She had cross-verified these details with other contacts, and the rumor is that they maybe secretly looking out for a buyer. If that is the case, then Belle would need more concrete evidence to convince the management to place an offer.

She started sorting out and ordering the information that she had gathered from emails, finance newspapers and magazines, stock market trends, marketing analysts and whatever David had put together in a file, into something that would make sense to the rest of the management.

Before his demise, Li Shang chose his grandson, Jie Li Shang, as an heir and sole owner of Li Shang & Sons Company. Li Shang did not trust any of his relatives; couple of them, also were members of the board, who were more interested in the monetary benefits rather than the business itself. He did not consider them worthy to be in his company at all.

Li Shang's only son had defied him, years ago, and ran away to marry the love of his life. He was devastated by his son's betrayal, but instead of going into depression and destroying his life; he devoted his time and energy in developing his company to achieve what no one else in his business could. He had several reliable and trustworthy employees, who were loyally dedicated to their master. Several years later, Li Shang cooled down his anger, after meeting his grandson. He forgave his son and daughter-in-law for their hastiness to marry without his blessings and invited them to be part of his family and business, again.

The others; his relatives and rivals, did not like the outcome of the reunion, and began to create a rift between the father and son. Realizing their jealousy and hatred towards his son's family, Li Shang cut them all off from his inheritance, and threw them all out of his company, and in the end, barred them from any kind of contact with him or his family; he did this last thing after being informed by his loyal supporters of their murderous plan to kill his whole family.

Although, Li Shang had written the will with good intentions to help his son and his family, it was nevertheless a huge responsibility, that none of them had ever fathomed about. For starters, Jie Li Shang is a research scientist, working in Harvard University; he had to abruptly leave his research to attend his grandfather's funeral and also to take up the responsibility of Li Shang & Sons. So that means he is a naïve, when it comes to his grandfather's business. He is more interested in his research than his grandfather's organization. But he had humbly taken the position of the Chairman to respect his grandfather's final wishes. It's amazing to know that Jie Li even survived the whole transition. Instead of crumbling, and running away from his duty, he is in fact driving the organization into the right direction, of course he has his father's help and his grandfather's loyal supporters and advisors, but still, it's an impressive feat.

Well, not for long though. If the rumors are to be believed, then Belle has a huge jackpot hanging in front of her, ready to fall into her lap. But she will have to approach this deal with caution, as there have been attempts by other buyers offering better compensation, but all attempts were thwarted by Jie Li's attorneys. Belle knew that Regal's can make a better offer than the other buyers, as they have done it several times in the past.

She was overwhelmed with the confidence boost that she was getting from the steady flow of information, making her sure that there would definitely be a positive outcome of her hard work.

"Hey, Belle!"

A female voice called her from behind. Belle turned around and saw that it was Mary; standing at the entrance of her cubicle, and behind her was Ruby, waving at her.

"I hope we are not disturbing you. It will just take a few minutes. I promise!" Mary asked with a doubtful smile.

"Hi Mary… Hi Ruby. How are you girls doing?"

"O Dear! What happened to you? You look so… faded." Mary replied with a horrified face.

_Faded, huh?_ Well… she was looking bad and getting worst every day.

"Work" Belle smiled tiredly "and no sleep"

Both Mary and Ruby frowned and looked sympathetically at her.

"Is that beast making you work hard?" then glancing towards Gold's door, Ruby said, "I know he can be a prick most of the times… that son of a gun." Belle was surprised to know that Ruby even had a mouth to speak, because last time she hardly uttered a word in front of her.

Belle shook her head.

"Oh. No. No. Mr. Gold! He is really nice to me." Belle can't believe that she was defending Gold, who first ignored her and then treats her like a stranger. "He is a very wonderful person to work with actually." There goes another one. Truth is… she did not even have a decent conversation with Gold, for her to come to that conclusion.

"Oh. My! This is definitely insanity speaking. Otherwise, who the hell would be happy working with… The Beast?" Ruby put a disgusted face in the end.

"Ruby" Mary reprimanded Ruby with a stern face.

"That's ok. So far I did not get" Belle lifted her hands in a clawing gesture "clawed by The Beast. Look…" Belle straightened in her chair and spread out her hands in front of her. "I am perfectly fine!" She tried to be nonchalant but her appearance betrayed all the assurance.

The girls were not convinced and they still looked at her with pity. Belle did not want to prolong this conversation of her being in stress; she fidgeted in her seat, trying to think of something that would change the tracks of their conversation.

"So, any luck finding a place to stay?" Mary asked, probably understanding Belle's helpless state.

"Nope… Not yet." Belle was thankful for the change of subject.

Mary and Ruby made eye contact with each other and seems to have come to some sort of understanding, and then Ruby spoke.

"I'm sorry… about last time if I upset you in some way. I… was actually not in a mood and that showed during lunch time, with you guys. I'm really sorry!"

"That's ok. I must have not observed it." Belle tried to lighten the situation.

Ruby looked at Mary again and then continued. "We were wondering if you would still want to join us to be our third roommate."

Belle wasn't expecting this; she has been trying hard to find a place to stay, but ended up with nothing, and now Ruby's offer made her very emotional and her eyes became glassy with tears. It's been days that she had slept peacefully, majorly because of the commotion coming from the next room and partly because of work. She didn't have any friends in this city and could call Mulan only during the daytime, due to the time difference. Overcome with emotion Belle immediately stood up and hugged Ruby.

"Thank you… Thank you so much… It really means so much to me!"

Ruby was surprised by the motion and froze for a few seconds, but then hugged her back, lightly patting her back.

"You are welcome, Belle."

Belle broke off, then wiped the tears with her palms, and spoke.

"How silly of me?!"

Up close, Belle looked even more horrible, her under eye circles were completely dark and her skin was pale like a ghost.

"Have you even properly slept lately?" a concerned Mary asked Belle.

Belle shook her head to confirm Mary's question.

"It's my hotel room… there's so much of… noise coming from the next room every night… that I can't even close my eyes for couple of minutes. "

"Is it that bad?" asked Mary with genuine concern in her eyes.

Belle nodded.

"It's horrible…! Must be some sex-starved couple or a hook up party… they keep rutting on the bed… and that creaking noise… is the worst… I don't know if I'll be able to survive another day."

"That's bad." Ruby said.

"Would it be ok for you to move in tomorrow evening? By then we can get the room ready for you." Ruby asked hesitantly.

Belle smiled happily at those words.

"That's awesome! I think… I will be able to brace another night of hot passionate sex."

They all laughed at that.

"Cool, then. Mary will email you the address and the directions to our apartment, and if you have any trouble with the directions, just call me, alright?" Ruby scribbled their phone numbers in a paper and gave it to Belle." If you need any help in packing or moving things… I can come over and help you?"

Belle felt happy and grateful towards Ruby. She had clearly mistaken her moodiness the other day, for dislike towards her.

"That's really so kind of you, Ruby. Ummmm… I just have couple of suitcases … and they're quite manageable, so I'll be fine. Thank you though for the offer."

Ruby shrugged. "You are welcome."

All the while Mary was looking at Ruby, and smiling.

"See, David was right about her... She is a sweet girl… just a little bit annoying at times, but she's fine."

Ruby pouted her lips at Mary's comments and they all laughed.

After they left, Belle felt like things were changing for the best. Now she has a place to stay, made two wonderful friends and roommates, her work is taking a good turn as well, and she is working for the man, she always had feelings for. Can this get any better?!

Belle was so happy and engrossed in her work that she totally skipped her lunch.

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"Miss French!" Gold called Belle from his office entrance, and when she turned around, he motioned her inside, "In my office. Now!"

At his gesture, Belle stopped whatever she was doing and followed Gold inside his office.

"Yes, Mr. Gold"

Once inside, Gold walked to the printer, pulled out some papers, and then strides back towards Belle, who was now standing closer to one of the chairs at his desk. He stopped right in front of her, couple of feet away from her, then lifted the papers, and asked her.

"What the heck is this?"

"I… I don't understand. What are you talking about?" Belle answered, confusion written all over her face.

"Why don't you read it yourself, Miss. French" And he handed her the papers.

Belle took the papers carefully from Gold's hands and asked, "What is it?"

"Just read…" Clearly he was irritated and seems to have no patience in answering her question. Belle quit asking any more questions and then started to read. After a while, Belle's eyes widened and her mouth fell open with shock.

"What does it say, Miss French?" Gold asked impatiently after a few seconds.

"I… It… It's impossible."

"How I wish, it was."

"But… H…How could they say something like that to us… They are blaming us for spying on their company… they don't have any proof to say those things?"

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Not us… You!"

"Me?!"

"And as far as proof… even if they don't have one… they'll make one."

"Why?"

"Why!" Gold took a step closer to her "You know why…? Because, I was presented with an incompetent and careless assistant… "

"What?"

"… Whose ambitions and over-confidence was flying so high, that any kind of logical thinking or careful planning was out of the question. Now… because of what you did… I will have to apologize to Mr. Shang and mend whatever has been broken by… You. Trust… plays a big factor in this business, Miss. French, and it has taken me a long time to build it with my clients, especially with Mr. Shang's grandfather."

Belle stood there silently, listening to his rant, and once he was done, she took a deep breath and sighed heavily.

"I assure you Mr. Gold, that I have done nothing wrong here. And why do you accuse me of something that is a total norm in the industry? It is a fairly common practice to get as much information of the client as possible, so that we have a guaranteed and successful take over."

She was calm and composed when she spoke, but there were hints of frustration on her face, and it was taking every ounce of energy within her to control and defend herself. But only if she could have stayed silent, for a little while longer! But her reply only frustrated him even more. He glared at her.

"Are you trying to teach me the nuances of this business?" saying he took a long stride towards her, with his finger pointing to his heart. She did not even move a bit; instead she stood her ground, keeping a steady eye contact.

"All I am saying is that my contacts are very reliable, whatever information they have acquired was done in a legitimate way. They would never betray me!"

Betray. Now, that totally ticked him off. Gold had gone through a lot of bad things in his past, and most of them happened because of lack of trust, and unfortunately those situations involved women.

"Betray…?! I have seen more life than you, Miss. French. It's just a matter of time before someone stabs you in your back." He took another step towards her, and put his right hand on one of the chairs beside Belle, clutching it tightly, trying to veer his anger towards the chair.

"Maybe, you have not come across someone, who you can believe… can be trusted." Belle tilted her head upwards with narrowed eyes, challenging him.

Gold scoffed at her and replied.

"Looks more like you are living in a fantasy land of books, dearie. I don't think you belong in a tough and unforgiving world as this… dearie. This… is real world!"

Belle flinched at the offense, but then sprang back up, and this time she moved closer to him, closing the remaining distance between them, with just a hairsbreadth space between them, defiantly.

"My mentor always told me, that I was a brave girl, brave enough to go through the pain in my life, brave enough to face this world, and I regarded him for that." She inhaled deeply." But now,… I think… that he was just a big… liar."

"Miss. French!" Gold shouted

They stood there still, the words sinking in slowly. One second they were arguing about the deal and the very next, they went back to being, mentor and student. Seconds passed away, before either of them spoke anything.

Belle tried to open her mouth to say something, but Gold cut her off.

"Leave."

"But I…"

"I said, leave, Miss. French!"

Belle stood there for a few more seconds and then walked out of his office.

That… he did not expect. He did not lie to her, he never did. Whatever he told her was true. She was one of the bravest people he had ever met. She had mentioned about her parent's death, and he was in Storybrooke, when her father died. She was so broken and lonely, that he had seen her several times crying, alone in an empty classroom. He had no idea of how to approach her and comfort her. Until one day, when he found her in one of the empty classrooms, weeping inconsolably. He couldn't stop himself, he had to do something, and then he did the brave thing by walking inside to talk to her. Belle saw him coming and ran towards him, hugging him tightly, and crying over his shoulder. He did not stop her and let her cry her heart out. His heart broke to her cries and the only thing he wanted to do was, whisk her away to some place where he can protect her, and keep her safe from any harm, as she looked so vulnerable and weak. But then he was happy when Belle made it through that difficult phase, and that made him think, that she is in fact a brave girl; living alone, running a flower business singlehandedly, and studying hard, even after such a tragedy; it was remarkable. She was a hero to him.

Gold was leaning on his desk, with his hands splayed on the surface, thinking about the past. He then, straightened, and walked towards the door and closed it; he needed some solitary time after the argument with Belle. He wanted to work, but his thoughts were all about what Belle just revealed about him. Hmmm… she regarded him! What's there to regard him about? He never did anything for her, instead she was the one to offer her friendship to him.

Gold pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. He has to somehow fix this new problem that Belle had unintentionally created. He wrote an email with an apology for Belle's blunder, and sent it to Jie Li Shang. He preferred a direct approach, rather than going through Jie Li's lawyers, which will only make matters worse. If Mr. Shang is like his grandfather, then he would let go of this issue, otherwise Gold will have to think of something else to fix this problem.

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Belle was way too exhausted by the time she reached her hotel room. All she wanted to do was sleep and forget about what happened today with Gold. She had tried her best to convince him, that by contacting the client, she has not breached the company protocol, and that her contacts were trustworthy. But he wouldn't budge; instead he kept ranting about her inexperience and her being childish.

Belle couldn't hold back either, she too hit back at him with equal intensity, which she did not intend to, but then it just happened. She forgot that he was not her mentor, who could just grade her papers and maybe give her a detention, but that he is her boss, who is feared by everyone at work, and also in the outside world. He is not someone, who had comforted her during her time of grief. He has changed and is so different from the person she knew… and as they say… he is a beast, now.

She had hardly slept for couple of hours for the past few days. The noise coming from the adjacent room, not only caused Belle to have sleepless nights, but also made her dream more of Gold in every suggestive ways. Those awful nerve relaxer medicines were of no help, they only made her groggy and out-of-focus in the morning. She had tried to complain to the hotel helpdesk, but it was of no use, all they did was assure her, that it will not happen again. But it did, every single night, and kept going well off past midnight. The work was hectic, she had never worked on such a huge project before, it was not only challenging, but also somewhere deep in her heart, she wanted to prove it to Gold that she was capable of such a huge task, and maybe have something more than just an employer/employee relationship.

But that was not bound to happen, especially after the argument they had. It still annoyed Belle that there was something that Gold was trying to hide from her, and that somehow she may be involved in it. Probably, she is just imagining these things, could be because, she always wanted to have something more intimate with Gold. But how is it possible for a person to change so much within a few years, and not recognize you?

Belle twisted and tossed in her bed, reminiscing today's events. Thankfully, one good thing that happened was that she found a place to stay, and today, she didn't have to go around city hunting for a room, and come back exhausted. She made it early to her room and she was happy about that. She can have couple of more hours of sleep tonight before facing her pissed off boss tomorrow.

Oh. Darn! He must be totally pissed off by her and now she was uncertain about her future prospects of staying in Regal Eagle's for a long time. He didn't say anything after the argument, he just asked her to leave, and he may just fire her tomorrow for being so unprofessional. She tried to apologize to him… she really did try… but he quickly asked her to leave. She is normally patient with everyone, even under pressure, but then sleeplessness has its way to bring out the worst in people. She cannot excuse herself with that explanation now… but… well… there it is… yup… she is screwed up!

With nothing else to think about, except her sorry state, Belle's mind slowly drifted to sleep. She was half way through her sleep, when a creaking noise and loud shouts woke her up; it was coming from the next room. The creaking sound was horrible tonight; looks like those jerks are on some kind of steroids.

_Must be some sex-deprived maniac and his whore_!

Belle had enough of this madness, she threw the blanket aside and bolted from her bed, put on her slippers and walked towards the adjacent room, with fury. She decided in her mind, that she is definitely going to get her sleep tonight, and if that means, that she will have to bind the couple and gag them with sheets in the bathroom… the whole night, then so be it. This was her limit, because of their all night ruckus, her job is in jeopardy, and her mind is in turmoil.

Belle stood right outside the next room door, took a deep breath, and then knocked on the door. She could clearly hear the dumb-heads giggling inside, and it was infuriating her even more.

"Leave the chocolate at the door."

_Seriously?!_ _They have the audacity to think that she was some kind of room service._

She fisted her palms and knocked again, even more harder, letting the occupants realize its more than a room service. They better open the door now or else she is going to break it open… Oh. Yeah! She can do that.

"Coming. Just a second." It was a male voice.

There was some ruffling and more giggling, and as if someone was running towards the door, and then the door opened. Belle opened her mouth to shout at whoever was going to open the door.

"Belle?!"

Belle just stood there with her mouth open, shocked, and then a female voice called out from inside.

"Oh! I just can't wait anymore. Who… is…"

That voice sounds familiar. Uh oh! Wait a second; here she comes draped in just a sheet.

"Belle?!"

Belle couldn't form any words in her brain; she was dumbfounded and stood there with her mouth open. So were they.

It was David Charming and Mary Margaret; the two nicest and helpful people Belle ever came across in this city.

Before things turned more awkward, Belle spoke, pointing her finger robotically to the direction of her room.

"I… I… I cannot sleep…haven't slept for a while… I want to sleep. Please!"

"Sure." They both replied in unison.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome."

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**Thank you guys for the wonderful reviews: Samzi, ctdg, Lyssalia, NicoleMuenchSeidel, Twyla Mercedes, TeamTHEFT, juju0268.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Hey Belle, do you wanna go for a coffee?"

Ruby called out to her from the lobby, just before the elevator to her floor was closing.

"Sure, I'll meet you at the cafeteria in… say five minutes?!" Belle suggested.

"Ok! See you then!" saying, she sprinted off.

Belle was rather in a good mood today, even after the incident last night and that horrible event with Gold. She threw her bag on her desk, and quickly left for the cafeteria. She saw that Ruby was already waiting for her with Mary Margaret at the coffee machine. While Ruby was flirting with a good-looking guy, Mary was standing there like a mute spectator. Ruby saw Belle and immediately sends the guy off, and by now Mary also sees Belle approaching them, but she suddenly puts her head down, probably in shame.

"Hey… you look pretty good today!" Ruby chirped excitedly.

"Better than yesterday?!" Belle asked her in a playful curiosity.

"Yup! A lot better!" saying she raised both her hands, palms splayed in the air. Mary was deadly silent and just dumbly nodded her head to Ruby's comments, with a forced smile.

"Hello Mary." Belle then greeted Mary.

"Hey!" Mary nervously replied.

Concerned she was still reeling on last night's gaffe, "Are you alright?" Belle voiced her concern.

"Yes… Yes… Sure. I am." She insisted.

Belle turned to the counter where the coffee machine was, looking for tea bags. She heard Mary clear her throat.

"Belle."

Belle turned around to hear what Mary had to say.

"I… I'm sooooo sorry about what happened last night… I mean all those other nights. It was totally inappropriate. We had no idea that we were making so much… ummmm… noise!"

She sighed deeply and continued, "I…I… I'm not a whore. I swear. I don't do such things. We… I mean, David and I… we are in a relationship…" she blew an exhausted breath, closing her eyes, she confessed, "it's complicated!"

"That's alright. You don't have to explain to me." Belle assured her.

"No, I do… I don't want you to look at us as if we are doing some kind of terrible sin or something, and also now that you will be staying with us, you will often see David come and visit me every now and then. He cannot stay at my place because… you know… ummmm of the sounds." Mary was turning into a bright red color trying to explain Belle of her situation. "We did not want to make Ruby uncomfortable, so we decided to book a room in that hotel, we usually take that particular room, and it was just accidental to have you adjacent to our room and…" Mary kept blabbering on and on.

"Relax, Mary. It's totally fine. You guys are grown-ups and can do whatever you want, and you need not explain it to anyone." Belle tried to calm her down.

Belle knew about their relationship from Jefferson. While he was trying to fix her workstation he gossiped about almost everyone in the office.

But Ruby clearly didn't want to let go off the incident.

"Did you sleep well, last night...? If not, then you should have tried some chocolate, they can relax you in an instant" She said that with a smug on her face. All she could think of was how stunned both Mary and David were, when their rendezvous was interrupted by Belle.

"Oh, Yeah! Sure." Belle gave her an equally side grin and then they burst into fits of laughter.

Mary just gawked at them and tried to hush them down," Stop it now… both of you! Oh God! This is so embarrassing."

"You should've seen Mary Margaret and Charming's flushed faces last night, when they came back home. They were sooooo red-faced." Ruby was trying to talk between laughs, "I'd warned them several times of getting caught… but I never thought that it would happen so soon… and that too by you, our new roomie!"

They laughed even more. Mary couldn't help herself too and started giggling and taking that as a cue.

"I really had no idea of how to react after seeing them emerge through that freaking door." Belle added "expecting chocolate syrup... What were you guys planning to do with the syrup… hunh?!" Belle winked at Ruby.

"Ahhh… Shut up!" Mary drawled rolling her eyes, and covered her face with her palms.

When they had finally stopped their amusement at Mary's expense, Belle proceeded to make her tea. She made a black Earl Grey tea, with a spoon of sugar, and a dash of cream. Ruby was observing the way Belle made her tea, and her expression turned to a surprised smile, Belle noticed her.

"What?!"

"Nothing, just remembered someone else taking their tea like the way you do… That's all." Ruby shrugged.

"Mmmm….so there's someone who knows how to take their tea." Belle took a sip from her tea, and hummed in approval of the taste, "This is so perfect!"

"So… do you always prefer tea?" Ruby asked her curiously.

"In summer I prefer iced tea or lemon tea…, but otherwise would usually go with some nice hot black or green tea… coffee?! That's something I would take when I'm too stressed out and need to keep myself awake." Belle elaborated, "Like the past few days."

"Wow! I could have a nice black hot coffee at any given time." Ruby said

"And I would go for a nice hot cup of cinnamon choc…" Mary stopped and then added, "Never mind."

Mary is never going to escape this torment in the near future, she will just have to endure it for a while and avoid anything that has or is related to chocolate. They found a table empty, diagonally to the coffee station, in a corner, closer to the windows. They settled down, with Ruby and Mary on one side and Belle sitting on the opposite.

"So, now that you are aware of Mary-Charming's affair, you do want to move in right? I mean seriously, we know how you looked like in the past few days… a zombie. And now you find out that all that is because of your future roommate. I mean I would go ballistic at them." Ruby asked warily.

"If that is what I will have to endure during my stay at your place, then I may have second thoughts of moving in with you guys. But if they can keep it a little bit more private and low pitched, then I'm good to go." replied Belle.

"Thank you so much. That's a big relief for us…! I promise it's never gonna happen in the apartment." Mary exclaimed with relief.

After they were done with their coffee and tea, Belle spoke.

"I have already packed my stuff and put them in my car, and I was thinking that we can all drive to your apartment together. Unless, you girls have some other plan?"

"Are you kidding me?! That's awesome… just ping me whenever you are ready and we'll leave. Cool… also its Friday so we can leave early today."

Before leaving Ruby added, "OH. By the way, we will be going out for dinner tonight. Think of it as a welcome dinner!"

"Sounds good to me!"

Belle came back to her cubicle and settled down in her chair. There was so much of paper work spread out on her desk; her hard work. But all that hard work is of no use right now. Gold has again locked himself in his office pretending to be in some meeting. Every minute that passed by only increased her uncertainty of continuing in Regal Eagle Inc. No matter what the outcome may be of their argument, Belle wanted to make sure that every piece of information, estimation she got, and the acquisition proposal that she made for Li Shang & Sons are filed properly and saved into the database. Who knows, if things turned out in her favor, she wouldn't have to scramble for all the information again, instead will have it ready in her hands. The filing took a considerable amount of time to finish, which also helped her to divert her mind from all the bad thoughts of getting fired.

Once that was done, belle started to clean her desk of all the clutter that formed while working for the project, and then feeling hungry, because by now it was time for lunch, she grabbed a turkey sandwich, some fries and a cup of green tea, back to her desk. In between bites, she busied herself to rearranging the files in their database system, which again took a lot of time, because as soon as she came across an interesting file, she would get engrossed in reading the details of that deal. She added some notes of her own to those files, so that it would be easier to interpret those files at first glance, rather than read the whole set of documents.

In the meanwhile, she also kept looking at Gold's door, for any sign of him coming out from his meeting, so that she could corner him and enquire him about her project; because she was due to present it on Monday to the management, even though she had everything ready, she still needed a green flag from Gold. To keep an eye on the door, she moved her whole workstation to the opposite side of her desk, thankfully the cables were long enough to be moved but they were awkwardly running around her chair, one misstep and she could trip on those wires. Now, she had a very good view of Gold's office, as usual the door was closed and the binds pulled in, but at such an angle she wouldn't miss him going in and out of his office.

Belle had nothing else remaining to do so she started looking into deals that were made by Regina and mentally compared them with Gold's. Belle noted that there was a stark contrast of how each made their deals, though technically each had made significant contribution by raking in multimillion dollar acquisitions, the ones that Gold made, continued to give profit and still remained in the company, but those made by Regina, more than seventy five percent were either sold back to the seller due to losses or else sold to another company for a better price, and that company usually turned out to be Maleficent Corp. Regal Eagle Inc. had recently acquired Maleficent Corp for a price much higher than the market value. Interestingly, the profits from Maleficent were not going to Regal Eagle Inc., instead was being diverted back into Maleficent to cover up some major industrial accident that happened after the acquisition.

Jefferson had given her high level security clearance keeping in mind that she would be working with Gold on several high profile projects, occasionally requiring her to access the company database, and that means all of the confidential files, even Regina's. Belle made sure not to leave any kind of digital imprints indicating her access to Regina's files.

Belle's innate curiosity was getting the best out of her, which made her completely lose interest in any other activities, focusing her interest on those particular files. There were several missing information and discrepancies in just three deals that she had picked up; she doubted the other files would end up in the same way. Belle wondered if anyone ever considered verifying these files, to a layman it would look like jargon but to her they meant something else, along the lines of corporate fraudulency.

She was so busy that she didn't even notice a message pop-up on the right bottom of the computer screen, she opened the message; it was from Gold. Belle hurriedly opens the email and after reading the contents, her heart drops to the floor.

_Miss French,_

_Please stop working on Li Shang & Sons for now and file away all the documents in the database._

_Check with Mr. Charming on the quarterly financial reports from our clients, and our acquisitions, follow up with them on Monday._

_Rest, I will discuss with you on Monday or else on early Tuesday._

_Gold_

Why did he have to move her from a job that she was experienced in, to something so mundane? Was it because her contacts got exposed, and Regal had lost the chance to get one of the biggest Asian deals? That's ridiculous! It would have been much better if he had just fired her. She could find another stint or even go back to Mulan in China; her previous employer had promised to take her back whenever she wanted to. Now, what was she supposed to do? Create some stupid reports and make calls like those annoying marketers to remind them of their late payment and bully them with Gold's name. She had worked so hard to come to such a position, and all that she will do is file papers and create some stupid reports.

Belle was getting agitated even more as every minute flew by. She urgently needs to talk to Gold about the new arrangements, but he has already said in the email that he would discuss with her on Monday or else on Tuesday, in a way that will give her enough time to calm down and think through the situation and come up with a valid argument. This time she will make sure not to bring up their past association. This wasn't what she was expecting. This wasn't what Regina had offered her; maybe she can help her out on this situation. But even she is out of station with her son on an extended vacation. Finally defeated by her pounding headache from thinking too much, she bought a strong cup of coffee from the cafeteria to lull the headache.

Somewhere around 3:30 in the evening, Ruby called her up and asked her if should like to go home in fifteen minutes. Belle thanked her in her mind for the distraction to go home otherwise she knew that her brain would explode just by sitting there, and thinking about all the if's and but's. They decided to meet at the lobby and then leave from there.

Leaving early had its own benefits; they were able to reach home in just twenty minutes. Belle noticed that the building was located in a very quiet neighborhood with a very good view of the city from the balcony. It was a modest two bedroom apartment on the first floor, with a living cum kitchen and a small balcony with couple of indoor plants and herbs, and a bird's nest hanging there. Belle's room was not so big but the one thing that caught her sight was that it had ample amount of sunlight coming into her room from the two large windows on either side of the bed. The interior was painted in a light sky blue color, with a queen size bed in the center, a vanity table with a chair, and an attached bathroom. Belle immediately liked her room.

Ruby and Mary helped her with the luggage, and then left her alone to arrange things in her room. After a while, she emerged from her bedroom, tired. Mary had made coffee for all of them and both the girls were cozily sitting in a sofa. Mary gave Belle a cup and urged her to sit with them and relax for a while, before they rush for the dinner. They had plenty of time, so Belle settled down in a chair closer to Ruby.

"I've been observing since the time we left the office, you look so glum… is everything alright?" asked Ruby after taking a sip from her coffee mug.

"Mm-hmmm"

They were not satisfied with the answer.

"I don't think so…" Ruby moved from her seat to lean towards Belle, she placed her right hand on Belles hand trying to assure her "hey c'mon, you can tell us anything… it's ok"

That was comforting; Belle gave her a weak smile, and instead kept her eyes on the coffee.

"If there's something that we can help you with, then we will be more than glad to." Mary added.

Belle felt there was nothing wrong in letting out her frustration and lessen her burden about her job situation.

"It's my job." Belle started.

"What happened?" Mary asked.

"Nothing… It must be my imagination or something. Ummmm… Mr. Gold reassigned me from my original work… just because of some misunderstanding."

"Oh."

Belle then gave a summary of whatever happened between her and Gold the previous day, leaving out couple of details. She didn't want to reveal anything about their past to them.

"That's bad, but don't you worry. If at all there is a problem, we can still find you something in this big city. Moreover you are well qualified too. David told us about the meeting he had with you and he was thoroughly impressed with you." Ruby assured her.

"Thanks Ruby!" Belle smiled

"Yes, and David has contacts with so many different clients and I can say that he will definitely talk with them and get something for you. Don't you worry Belle!" Mary said.

"Oh no, I'm not worried about finding a job. It's the way things are going for the past few. It's… It's as if I have no control over anything in my life and that's freaking me out."

Mary and Ruby just looked at each other as if asking for guidance to calm her down.

Belle moved in her chair to put the coffee mug down on the side stand, and noticed couple of photo frames on the table, and quickly asked Ruby about one of them, in which Ruby was standing with an old lady.

"Oh, that's my granny." Ruby said.

Belle took the frame that Ruby pointed to, for a closer look. The lady looked familiar. They had taken the picture outside some diner – Granny's diner. Belle then remembered the diner and the old lady.

"You are from Storybrooke?!" Belle asked her in surprise.

"Yes"

"But… How come I've never seen you?"

"ummmm… that could be because we were not in the same social circle…" Ruby shrugged**.**

That's true; Belle never had many friends in Storybrooke. They had moved from Australia to Storybrooke when she was ten years old. She used to spend a lot of time in the library or else hang out with Mulan and her family, who were immigrants just like her. Later on she didn't have time to even go to college because of her sick father. She had to divide her time between taking care of her dad, their flower business and her studies.

"Yeah… maybe" Belle agreed

Belle had another thought, "So you went to the Storybrooke College too?"

Ruby confirmed, "I did but… dropped out in the final year."

"I wish I had known you before…" Belle lamented, "I can't believe that we are from the same town and we never met each other. Funny huh?!"

Ruby glanced at Mary and nodded her head.

"So, tell me more about your life in Storybrooke and howz granny and the diner?" Belle asked enthusiastically.

"She is doing well and the diner is running the same way as it was when she started it. Old woman doesn't wanna give up the diner, she tells that there are some beautiful memories of her and grandfather."

"I can understand." Belle replied and had a quick trip down the lane in her mind with her father, her friends and the library. That was a really memorable time, though some were hurtful, but overall a satisfactory one.

Ruby's parents died in a car accident, when she was still a baby. Her Granny, Mrs. Lucas, had brought her up. She later went to Storybrooke High and then undergrad in Storybrooke College. She basically had fun throughout her childhood and adolescent days with her friends. She used to help her granny in diner whenever she got the time, mostly standing at the cash register or else in the kitchen. She was into pranks and betting on challenges with her friends and others alike. And one day she did the inevitable which changed her entire life. It was start of the fall semester and one of her friend had given her an ultimate challenge to get through Gold's class for two weeks starting by vandalizing his car. She wholeheartedly accepted the challenge and registered herself into Gold's class; it was an optional class and she would quit after two weeks, she had nothing to lose. But somehow Gold came to know about it and called the cops on her for damaging his vehicle, she was let go with two months of community service. Ruby couldn't bear the humiliation and she dropped from the college immediately.

"Oh, I'm sorry that you had to go through it. If that is the case then how did you end up working in Regal Eagle?" Belle asked curiously.

"Well, the old asshole had a change of heart… I guess?! As I told you Granny and Gold shared a good rapport with each other. I wasn't doing well at that time. I couldn't find a proper job because I dropped out of school so early and Granny didn't trust me with the diner. So she called Gold for help as she trusted him way too much and made a deal with him."

"What deal?" Belle inquired with interest.

"Well… he promised to give me a job in Regal Eagle if I behaved properly, and that included shedding away my old image and do a total makeover to fit into his so called corporate world. Granny forced me into taking the job even though I hated him so much!" She grimaced.

"But then I thought… I already had taken my revenge on him for the humiliation that I faced in Storybrooke…" She boasted with a wicked smirk on her face

"Soooo… what did you do?" asked Belle

"I ruined his date… and now when I think about it, I feel happy, that I did the right thing."

"Alright, enough of your stories" Mary interjected, "David messaged me, reminding us about the dinner. So you girls better get ready. We are leaving in an hour. C'mon… hurry up!"

They all hurried to their respective rooms to freshen up. Belle put out her evening dress on the bed and proceeded to take a nice hot shower. Under the running water, Belle couldn't help herself thinking about the lady, with whom Gold almost had a date. She felt a pang of jealousy when Ruby mentioned about the date, and now she desperately wanted to know who it was.

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**Thank you all for the wonderful reviews: Twyla Mercedes, All Hallows'Eve31, ctdg, TeamTHEFT, NicoleMuenchSeidel, juju0268 and Rumbelle4ever.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Gold had to postpone his regular class by another week much to his student's relief. He came back home long after all the employees had left for the weekend, until then he tried to keep himself busy but most of the time he was sulking over the argument he had with Belle. After arriving home he went straight into his study to start his drinking ritual, which has become a regular habit for Gold as his lonely paradise offered little comfort to the number of heartaches he'd been through.

He must have finished couple of drinks when his phone started beeping incessantly, he checked to see who it was and saw an email waiting for him. He wasn't even expecting a reply from Jie Shang for the apology that he emailed on Belle's behalf, considering Jie Shang's inexperience of his grandfather's business and unfamiliar foes, and also that the weekend had already started in that region. So, he was a little perplexed when he saw Jie Shang's mail, with a string of queries questioning Gold's authenticity to the apology that he sent. Out of respect for his grandfather, he felt obliged and started answering his questions about him.

So, Gold had to spend his Friday evening exchanging emails with Jie, confirming his identity as Mr. Gold and details of the meeting he had with his grandfather. Normally, he wouldn't entertain such level of intrusiveness into his personal affairs, but this one was an exception. Once satisfied, that he was conversing with the real Mr. Gold, Jie then revealed his actual intentions for the sudden interest in him.

Apparently, Jie Shang's grandfather, before dying, had suggested Gold's name as a prospective buyer for their business if at any time his family wanted to sell or merge the company in the future. He also revealed that his grandfather had done a thorough background check and kept monitoring Gold's activities for a while before he had agreed to meet him the first time. The meeting was in a way a ruse for him to personally evaluate and measure Gold's intellectual capacity and business acumen. And in the end, he was thoroughly impressed with him, even though certain facts did not fare so well, he had to conclude that Gold was much better than any other businessman he had met before.

Gold was shocked by this revelation; never during their interaction did Gold had a hint that Late Shang was even evaluating him or even considering him for any kind of business with him. It's been a while that his grandfather had expired, so he wondered why he would contact him after such a long time and gets aware of his existence only because they found out Gold's company was spying theirs?

To this he answered that his grandfather's loyalist were not inclined towards taking in a partner and had assured him of running the business till his younger brother was capable enough to run the business on his own. But that would still require him to stay in China for an extended period of time, which was not feasible for him and also he had his research to take care of. He also wanted the merger to happen at the earliest as possible so that he can leave immediately.

Gold was thrilled with the information and found the meticulously filed information for Li Shang & Sons, thanks to Belle, come to his rescue, and requested Jie Shang to send back information that was lacking in those files, so that he can at least make a raw estimate for the merger. And by Tuesday, Gold received all the required documents to move the deal. As he'd already visited their company, he didn't think it necessary to reevaluate them again.

Once the conversation ended, the only thing that Gold could think was how badly he'd treated Belle for no fault of hers, who in turn is now the catalyst for this huge deal. How Gold wished that he could undo whatever he did today. He had lived up to his reputation of being '_The Beast'_ by unnecessarily vindicating accusations on Belle. He also started doubting that Belle's association with Regina could just be an innocent coincidence, because otherwise she would have made sure to pass on this lucrative offer to her rather than to him, even though there was no possibility that Jie Shang would make a deal with Regina. But that's the thing, Belle is not aware of the possibilities. He had made sure to do a thorough background check on Belle through one of his trusted agencies and was waiting for the results.

He came early to work on Tuesday to personally receive the confidential documents specially delivered by Jie's aide from China, and then patiently waited for Belle, to give her the good news. He'll have to wait for another hour for her to arrive and the waiting was just _killing_ him so much, but also gave him enough time to think over how's he going to tell her.

He'd been in this industry for such a long time as the undefeatable king of deal-making and he never failed in any of his ventures. This is a first for him… a defeat… a sweet defeat, and he's glad that it's Belle rather than Regina or anyone else for that matter. But all these years of being invincible had gone through his head, even though he has the right words in his head to accept his defeat in front of Belle, the very thought overwhelmed him too. He had a small fear in his heart that Belle would mock him, jeer him, and look down at him, for his foolishness and arrogance.

Gold subconsciously started twisting the connecting wires of his phone, while holding the speaker on the other hand, eyes staring straight ahead at Belle's cubicle, watching her petite form settle down. She looked rather ravishing today with a polka dot dress cinched at the waist with a thin black belt, complimented by a dark jacket and matching pumps. If her intelligence would be mocking at him then now it's her beauty that's deriding him ever further into a darker place of self-loathing. Reluctantly, Gold dialed her number and requested her to come in, keeping his tone neutral and stern. He kept staring at her, never once blinked his eyes during the call, not even when she walked towards his door.

"Miss. French, there is something important I need to discuss with you about… Please have a seat."

He gestured her to the chair across from him to sit. Her whole body looked tensed as she awkwardly walked in and took the offered chair.

"You see…" and even before he could start, Belle cut him off.

"I'm sorry…" She looked so small and unsure blurting those words out. Gold furrowed his brows trying to figure out what exactly she meant. Did she do something wrong… _again_?

"Pardon me, Miss. French?"

"The other day…" she searched his face for some recognition of the incident, but he still did not understand. "Ummmm… It was never my intention to upset you, Mr. Gold. It just… slipped out of my mouth. I was not in my right mind and I apologize for that!"

She nervously continued, "And if that would mean that I may have to leave this company… I assure you that I will gracefully accept my dismissal."

Looks like both their minds were working in tandem. She took his outburst as a sure sign of him firing her from her job and he… a few days back, actually wanted to do the same. What an irony! Even though he still has the power to do that, it would be truly unfair towards Belle.

"Dearie… if I fired you… _now_, I would actually look like a fool to others." That statement caught her off-guard and she blinked her eyes several times as if trying to understand what he really meant.

"… And if you don't have anything else to… _confess_, may I proceed?" He asked her.

"Yes, Please." she replied warily coming out of her trance, and then kept a steady gaze at him.

"I checked the documents you prepared… during the weekend, and I must say that I am quite… impressed by your work!" Her eyebrows rose slightly, a little surprised to hear that.

He further added, "Strange as it is and also quite remarkable, that you have given me the exact financial estimates that I had in my mind for the deal." She kept listening to him intently, without moving or shifting her gaze.

"But… there is a small glitch in the proposal." She looked at him questioningly, waiting for him to explain the problem.

"… Instead of buying them, they will be merging with our company. And I want you to work on the details of this new development ASAP…" He pointed at the package sitting on his desk, "For more information, you can go through that package."

As Gold waited patiently for Belle to absorb that last piece of information, understanding dawned on her, and she smiled suspiciously at him.

"So, are you telling me that this deal is happening… _right now_?"

He did not want to keep the suspense extended and he slightly nodded his head once, confirming her doubts. Her smile slowly turned into a triumphant grin, and Gold smirked inwardly at her enthusiasm.

"How? I mean… we didn't even send them a formal proposal. I…I don't understand?"

Gold knew that she did deserve an explanation; after all, she was the one who took the initiation to work on that particular client, and unknowingly set out a string of events that lead to this lucrative deal. But he decided on leaving a few details as a mystery for the time being. He'll explain to her everything later if needed but at the right time, he thought.

"You can say that my previous acquaintance with the Late Li Shang… _paid off_. But of course, it's all thanks to you." She looked thrilled, a striking contrast from what she looked a few minutes back. And before she could ask him more questions, he pointed her back to the package and reminded her of the task ahead.

"Now, dearie, we have very little time in hand to seal this merger. So you better hurry up…" And as if to look busy, he quickly bends his head down to work on a file, flipping through pages.

"Oh, yes, definitely." Belle picked the package and started to walk out of the room, but midway she turned around and called him,

"Mr. Gold"

He lifted his head questioningly and she gave him a warm smile and said,

"Thank you… for everything."

And then she left. Gold kept staring at the space where she'd stood seconds ago, completely spellbound by her angelic smile and innocence. Here he was worried that she'd look down on him for his hastiness in judging her capabilities and instead she was thanking him… for nothing.

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This being her first largest merger in her career, Belle kept running to him for answers and his approval on things that she was working on. She had made at least five trips to his office within an hour. Tired that she would keep on bugging him more and interrupting his calls, he requested her to bring all her work to his office, sit down and work there. Probably, she thought he was making a gibe at her so she calmly went back to her cubicle and didn't show up well after two hours. She stood at the door cautiously, undecided whether to enter or not. He realized that he was a little rude when he asked her to work in his office and that she was having trouble with his mood swings. So he lowered his tone, and made it clear to her that he really meant to work with her in his office without any disturbances and that he'd cancelled all his other appointments to specifically do that. She quickly went back and got all her documents and the package to his desk and sat down right across from him and started working. In a way it was convenient for him too, as he could ask her to explain the laws on acquisitions and mergers in China.

It started out very professional in the beginning. They divided the work - region wise, Belle taking charge of everything related to China and Gold settling with US law. Belle never stopped asking him questions and Gold made sure to explain to her everything in detail as possible, without showing any annoyance or inconvenience, trying to make her feel more relaxed and welcome in his company. This went on for a while, till they settled down into a more comfortable pace with a few occasional questions coming from either of them.

After a while, the whole room turned into complete silence, a comfortable silence, which started disturbing Gold in a rather odd way. So every time he got a chance, he'd try to peek up from his papers to look at her, he couldn't help his mind astray to the beautiful woman sitting right across the table, nose buried deep inside those ominous files. He observed her soft, pink lips chewing the top of the lucky pen, busy reading the documents, and at other times, she would just abandon the pen for her curls, slowly twisting them between her fingers. And whenever she lifted her face to look at him, she would give him the sweetest smile, warming his heart… and stirring his body down below his belt, but he would pretend that he raised his head or turned his vision to look her at her at the same time.

He had absolutely no idea or he must have forgotten, exactly when Belle had moved her chair closer to his. Must be around when she came back from the cafeteria, holding two tea cups for each of them. Gold took his and thanked her. He tasted his tea and found that it was exactly the way he always took his.

After some time Gold found something interesting and wanted to share it with Belle and ask her opinion about it. So, he beckoned her to look at it, and she walked towards him and decided to stand right behind his chair, bending down, holding the arm of his chair, to read the paper from his hand. Her shoulder slightly rubbed against his in the process, her face was so close to his that he could feel her warm breath wafting his left cheek, and her scent was heavenly to his senses. He closed his eyes, leaned towards her, dazed and greedy for more of her, and breathing her in. Unaware of his uneasiness, Belle kept on reading, humming in between lines, and in the end agreeing that it would be beneficial to the company.

Gold suddenly had a déjà vu about their current position, and he remembered the day she wore the cleavage revealing outfit in college. Just recalling that day and feeling it again in a different circumstance sent a bolt of lightning to his groin, and he let out a silent sigh. Her mild vanilla scent, loosely hanging stray tendrils and her intoxicating breath at such close proximity was driving him mad. No matter how hard his mind tried to shut down all types of amorous feelings towards her, his body didn't agree with it. So he suggested her to take the document and study it in her own time. But instead she went back to her chair and absent-mindedly pulled the chair closer to his. He shook his head in disbelief, sighing at her helplessly.

This closeness left them only with accidents happening every now and then. They would bump into each other trying to get something from the desk or to put something back, it was as if their body got synched up to act at the same time. And every time they touched, they would apologize or just laugh at each other. Gold had no idea of how Belle felt about all these, but he was sure that he did not mind them at all and earnestly enjoyed those brief contacts. Which in turn, turned the ever-growing heat in his body into a flaming furnace, his face blushed and his hands would tremble after those momentary feels. He was aware of the physical signs that his body was involuntarily showing, so he excused himself by lying to her that he'd able to think better if he sat on the designer sofa used by his waiting guests. Belle simply nodded to that and he left carrying a file along with him.

The final day, that's Friday, was the ultimate testing time for Gold's patience. They were close to completing the final draft of the merger proposal, only one or two key items were missing, and they skimmed through pages and pages to find it. Gold retired himself to the sofa to take a break while Belle was busy rechecking the last file, when suddenly Belle shrieked out in excitement at finding the last piece of data that they were so eagerly looking for and rushed towards Gold to show him. She ran in her haste, smiling triumphantly at her finding, and tripped on the carpet that lay under the lounging area where Gold was sitting. Gold jumped from his position with impossible reflexes and caught her around the waist at the right moment. Together, they stumbled backwards a little, mainly due to Belle's unexpected force from the impact, but they did not fall. She would have hit the coffee table head-on and injured herself seriously. But she was safe… in his strong arms.

They stood there in an awkward embrace, Belle's body flushed against his, blue eyes boring into dark brown, rosy lips so close that if she moved her lips even a little, he was sure that he would pull her closer and kiss her, then and there, without thinking about the consequences. Neither of them moved or uttered a word… frozen in time. Belle's arms were strongly gripping his shoulders as if she was holding onto her dear life.

It was Belle who finally broke the silence, trying to move away from him, while her arms were still wedged on his shoulders, trying to balance on one leg, "Tha…Thank you," She tilted her head to the side slightly, "_again?!_"

"Never mind," saying Gold quickly released her from his grip, deeply regretting that move when she hobbled on one leg. He caught her again, this time her arms. He saw that one of her shoes slipped out of her leg during the fall and she was trying to balance on one leg with his support.

Still holding onto his arm, Belle hopped to her abandoned shoe and wore it swiftly.

Concerned she must be hurt, he asked her, "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine… You caught me at the right time though!" She beamed playfully at him which eased the knots that was still there in Gold's stomach from the time of her fall.

Realizing that there were papers strewn everywhere, Belle bend down to pick up the papers, which flew away from her hand during the commotion. Nothing else to think about or do, Gold also joined her in the cleaning.

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Their herculean task was finally complete by late afternoon. They were ready to send an electronic version of their merge proposal, once both the parties agree with the conditions, even though that's not needed as Gold had taken care of it already otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to it in the first place, and then there would be an official meeting to sign the documents sealing the deal.

Gold made sure that Belle was with him when he sent out the document to Jie Shang and his attorneys, she was grinning widely, proud over her achievement. To Gold, this is something that he did on a routine basis, but for Belle this was something she could hardly imagine in her life happening so early in her career. He secretly enjoyed her happiness, hiding behind the computer screen, he smirked happily.

He wanted to celebrate this moment, congratulate her, hug her, and take her out on a celebratory dinner served with exquisite food and wine. But he wasn't sure how Belle would react to all that, especially the hugging part, maybe out of fear she may accept his dinner invitation, but would she be happy going out with him? He didn't know, and if she _really_ wasn't happy in his company then he absolutely didn't want to know about it. So he contended with letting her to take the rest of the day off to celebrate her achievement with her friends.

Gold lived three beautiful days with _his_ Belle; sharing his office, drinking tea together made by Belle; those empty cups still lying on the table, papers she touched and the sticky notes she used to reference later. Her scent was even more stronger in the now vacant room, must be his sense of smell heightened after she left. Thinking that leaving the room which was infused with Belle's scent may deprive him of the joys of those three days spent with her, so he decided to stay in his office a little while longer, reliving those moments again in his brain.

He reclined lazily in his chair, with a satisfied smile ghosting over his lips and eyes dreaming of Belle. He wasn't sure how long he stayed like that, a knock on his door startled him from his daydream, annoyed and half-expecting it to be Belle, his eyes shifted towards the door.

It was Jefferson, leaning lazily at the entrance; naturally disheveled and impatient. Gold was so busy with Belle and the Chinese merger that he completely forgot about Jeff. The last time he met him he had punished him with unnecessary work for flirting with Belle. The thought of Jeff flirting with Belle made him jealous, but he knew that the flirting was completely harmless and Jeff would never intentionally hurt Belle in any way, he was confident about that. He invited him to come in, but Jefferson declined and instead asked him to go for a coffee. He could do that.

"Did you check those files?"

Gold knew that he'd given him some work but couldn't remember what it was. So he asked, "What files?"

"Brazil contract files? The ones that you wanted so urgently last week!" Jeff slammed his coffee on the table in disbelief, "Now don't tell me you don't remember them? I worked my ass off fixing that cross-country network shit for days!"

_Shit_

"Oh that! I did. I did, yes. You did an excellent job, Jeff," He gave a thumbs up sign, "And those files looked really good," He lied, "Well… I got busy with another deal in the meanwhile."

"Yeah, I can see that. You and Belle, working together, huddled up in that office of yours… every day…. You know as soon as my work was done I actually wanted to ask her out, and show her around the city, maybe even take her to one of the pubs."

_Yeah! Over my dead body douche! _He didn't like the way Jeff was talking about Belle.

"I think she must have left by now," He informed him.

"I don't think so… I saw her bag on her desk and she didn't even switch off her computer, which she usually does."

_She must be in the restroom, getting ready to leave. _ Gold thought. _Good for her… and him! She'll be safe for another week or two from Jeff's philandering ways, with the current deal keeping her busy for a while now. _

"Oh look! There she is." Jeff grinned excitedly, and motioned Belle to come over to where they were seated. She sat between Jeff and Gold, holding some hot beverage in her hands, it smelled of tea and roses, "I rarely see you these days, Is Gold making your life difficult by working hard for him?"

He stopped drinking his tea and glared at Jeff.

She giggled, "No, not at all."

Gold felt uncomfortable seeing Jeff flirt with Belle, right in his presence.

"Actually I was thinking of taking you for a celebratory dinner… tonight…?" _Where the hell did that come from?_

Both Jeff and Belle gaped at him

"… For the merger, of course," he added, waiting for her to either bolt out or come up with some stupid excuse.

She stammered when replying, "S… S… Sure." Gold was surprised but not unhappy with her answer.

"That's good. How about we meet at the entrance of this building at around… 6:30?" he asked her confidently.

"Ok" Belle looked quite excited, and in her excitement she jerked from her chair which made the chair to topple behind but not so much that it would fall. She adjusted the chair and then started talking to Jeff,

"Alright then… have a good weekend Jeff" without even waiting for his reply, she turned towards Gold, "See you later then."

He nodded and her face turned into a perfect shade of red. She walked away clumsily, almost bumping onto a table behind her, and she even abandoned her tea at the table.

"Wow… what was that all about? You took away my date! Gold," Jeff asked him in surprise.

_OH! Yes, I did._

Gold quickly worked out something in his head and sighed deeply before saying anything

"It's not a date, Jeff. It's a congratulatory dinner. Remember, I gave you one when you helped me in Regina's case?"

Jeff looked disappointed but nodded his head.

"She did an excellent job by getting us a billion dollar deal... that too within a week. Does that explain everything?"

Jeff's eyes went wide in shock and he said, "Really! That… tiny girl did that…?"

It was quiet for a while and Gold was thankful for the quietness, he still couldn't believe whatever happened just now.

Jeff looked as if he was thinking about something seriously and then he spoke, "So where are you taking her?"

Gold shrugged, he didn't think over that part yet, because he was still reeling from the shock, "I don't know… I was thinking about some nice Chinese restaurant as this is a Chinese deal that she got us."

"That's good. Take her to the 'Imperial Fine Dining' three blocks from here. It's an excellent place. I've been there several times with my _dates_." Jeff suggested.

Gold himself had taken several of his clients to that place; food was good, ambience was good, service was excellent and he could park his car in the building and walk to the restaurant. He took his advice and located their number on his phone and made the reservations for the evening. Now, all he has to do is - _wait_.

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**_Thank you for the reviews guys, especially Twyla Mercedes, All Hallows'Eve31, Tinuviel Undomiel, TeamTHEFT, juju0268, ctdg and RoxyMoron. _**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

She could swear she'd never taken such a long time for buying a simple cocktail dress, and to do so, going to an expensive boutique, shelling out couple of hundred dollars to do the same, that is something she would only dream of. Reality was more like a drive to the closest strip mall, and getting out of there within half an hour.

But this time it required a special consideration to her overall look. A dinner with a powerful businessman demands classy attire, not the ones she has in her closet. It's true she didn't have much money, but hey what are credit cards for, she will have to remind herself not to exhaust them all before her first paycheck.

Taking advice on clothes from Ruby was completely out of the picture, so she had to depend on Mary Margaret for advice about any high-end boutique offering a reasonable price for a formal cocktail dress. Mary was a savvy shopper, with a modern yet elegant approach to her formal wear, which fortunately were not that expensive, closely aligning with Belle's style.

The dress she chose was a sleeveless, navy blue colored lacey dress, bunched on to the left side in an asymmetrical design, giving a good shape to her curves. The flimsy material gave a nice view of her cleavage, good for some minor ogling from Gold. She smoothed out the material before placing it at the edge of her bed, and doing so, she sighed, hoping that tonight everything would turn out for the good.

She pulled out her black suede pumps and placed them on the floor, in front of her vanity chair, then took her jet black tights and placed them on top of the chair. She'd an unused formal cream colored pea coat, which she'd saved for a special occasion like this one, and a simple set of solitaire earrings she got from her mother as an heirloom, and placed them along with her dress on her bed.

Happily humming an old tune she went to the bathroom, filled the bathtub with warm water and threw in the aromatic bath salts that she got today, for a relaxing bath. She wanted to look clean, fresh, and smelling great for him, who knows maybe at one point he may want to touch, smell or even taste her skin. The very thought of Gold's tongue passionately devouring her send shivers throughout her body, thereby increasing her eagerness for the dinner.

She rapidly undressed and immersed her body into the aromatic water, up to her neck, and then closed her eyes with a sigh, as the fragrant scent swept through her senses. Belle felt so relaxed in the water. From the time she got busy working on the merger, a quick shower was the only respire she had before she rushed to her work, and by night she was so tired that she could hardly even move a finger to change into her night clothes. And now, she has got all the time she needed for a relaxing bath.

The sensuous fragrance of rose and herbs were really working wonders on her skin and mind, and Belle found herself completely relaxed in the water. She opened her eyes to lave some of the water over her face and neck, and then took a generous amount of the accompanying rose scented body wash to soak her skin with it. As she touched her skin, slowly and gently, she remembered the way his fleeting hands and body brushed hers, sending ripples of passion to her nether regions. Her eyes fluttered close to those sensations.

Subconsciously, Belle's hand started imitating Gold's prior movements, starting from her wrist, arms and then her shoulders, where his hot breath had made her to shiver. She was glad that he didn't notice her reaction, because of her hair forming a curtain between them. Her delicate fingers lingered there for a moment, as she gasped in pleasure, imagining them to be his long sinewy fingers.

Her body and mind were getting warmer and greedy, for more of those sensual feelings with each passing moment, as she lie there thirsting for him. And then she remembered his hesitant smile; lips slightly curled up, curious eyes measuring her argument. Since the time she started working with Gold, he never once smiled at her; either it was a serious stare or a stony glare, in return to her shy smiles, whenever she lifted her head from the boring pages to look at him.

But she was persistent and never ones became stingy with her smiles. She kept pursuing in one way or the other with little gestures, to turn up the corners of his mouth and make his eyes sparkle with happiness. Finally when he did, it was not in a good way, but sort of a faint amusement at one of her mistake, but slowly the later ones turned into genuine ones.

Her heart yearned for those amused lips, to kiss him, to kiss him everywhere, her fingers swiped over her lower lip, trying to imagine him kissing her, and she sighed longingly. Her hands slid over her tender breasts and cupped them momentarily with her palms, before sliding down to her stomach. He had caught her smoothly from the dangerous fall with his lean but strong hands, gripping her waist tightly and pulling her body towards his, her inner muscles clenched at the thought, wanting his member thrusting inside her.

She groaned with an unquenchable desire, and moved her legs, like a scissor, in the lukewarm water, brushing her sensitive thighs with each other, making goose bumps form all over her skin. Her hands encircled her stomach and pressed tightly, almost like the way Gold had held her, but in reverse. She moved her hands, up and down her waist and hips, creating even more heat throughout her body.

She imagined Gold undressing for her, standing beside the bathtub, facing her, starting with the coat, then waist coat, and so till he was completely naked. She moaned loudly this time, surprised by his naked body with an eager member waiting for her. She silently thanked the heavens for the empty house because she was sure that her loud and passionate sounds were traveling through each and every room of the apartment.

She writhed in want, deep inside her core. Unable to take any more of this torture, she parted her legs, slowly moved her left hand down and cupped her nether region, sighing deeply at the touch. She parted her nether lips with her fingers, slightly touching her overly sensitive bud in the process, which sent her mind spiraling, and made her bite her lower lips in pleasure.

Her idle right hand went above cupping her breasts, squeezing each of them in turns. She pinched her pert nipples and cried in passion, and then again returned to squeezing her breasts. Below, she started making circles around her bud matching the movements of her other hand on her breast. Her movements became desperate, rough and erratic, spilling water all over the bathtub. She kept chanting Gold's name, "Oh, Gold", with every circle she made around the bud. Tremors of ecstasy travelled throughout her body, making her scream his name loudly as she came to her climax.

She stayed still in the water for a while, weary from her wanton activity, and waited for her breathing to return to normalcy. And then she opened her eyes, disappointed that she had to let go of imagining Gold and his naked body. Her eyes darted across the bathroom floor, to the chaos she created in her frenzy; the floor around the tub was splotched with water; her skin on her palm had started to shrivel, and the warm water was now getting really cold.

"Shit"

She mumbled some curses and drained the excess water, deciding to take a hot shower instead. After the warm shower, she covered her damp skin with a warm towel, and then looked herself in the mirror, she rolled her eyes and shook her head, saying,

"You are going to be the death of mine, Mr. Gold."

She waited for her hair to dry and then straightened them. She left them as it is with few curls framing her face. Makeup was simple, eyeliner and mascara highlighting her blue eyes, and a dash of pink gloss.

Once ready, she checked herself in the mirror to make sure that everything looked perfect and formal for the dinner. She picked up her silver sequins clutch, and then headed for the subway, that was intentionally, to make Gold drop her back at her place after the dinner, a clever or maybe even a stupid idea to spend more time with him, depending on his mood or her mood.

She was greeted by Marcos, the building security guard for the night shift, who was surprised to see her back long after everyone had left. Even though it's only a few days since she started working there, Marcos remembered her well because of her pleasant disposition and the fact that she was working under Gold. They chatted for a while, and then he left to make a round around the building to make sure there was no one loitering around.

Unable to contain her anticipation, Belle made it a little early for the dinner. _If thirty minutes is a little early then so be it_. The lobby was heated, so she removed her coat and placed it next to her, along with her clutch. Sitting still, doing nothing in the lounging area, was stressing her out, so she opted to stroll around for some time, but even that didn't help. Then her attention shifted to the checkered glass windows of the opposite building, reflecting reversed ads and she stood there gazing at them, lost in her thoughts.

Working with Gold's mercurial personality requires one to have an immense amount of patience and tolerance, which Belle had learned in her college days in a rather hard way. It is actually a mask that he dons for others, to provoke and instigate fear in them, towards him, so that they won't bother him unnecessarily.

Belle was always intrigued by his weird character, most of them she heard as tidbits from students and staff in Storybrooke College, but when she saw him in real, she knew that she was head over in heels for him. With her perseverance and calm nature, she had won over him in a very small amount of time, not without some roadblocks though. You have to really look over the façade that he creates to conceal his true feelings and intentions. As you slowly know him, you would be surprised to know how vulnerable Gold is.

"Evening Miss. French"

A familiar thick Scottish brogue called out to her from her brooding. Lost in her thoughts, she turned around surprised,

"Mr. Gold, Nice to see you…" She trailed, as she went speechless taken in by his appearance, he looked in every respect the most desirable man to her in every respect, making her knees go weak, she gulped, "… Again!"

"Nice to see you too Miss. French," He made a quick glance at her from head to toe, "You look quite… beautiful for the evening."

Belle blushed at his compliment, and replied, "Thank you"

"So where are we going, Mr. Gold?" Belle queried

"Well… It's a Chinese restaurant, a walkable distance from here. Would you like to take a short stroll to our destination?" enquired Gold, but then he added, "But clearly, you don't seem to be prepared for it. My apologies, I should have informed you earlier. I'll bring my car and we'll drive…" He was about to turn when Belle spoke.

"No, that's fine. Walking is actually good. I really don't mind the cold. Seriously." She tried to convince him, "mmmm…They say New York City looks best during night time and I want to see the city in the dark when people are not rushing around. You can be my tour guide for tonight, if you want?" Big blue eyes pleaded to him and reluctantly he gave in.

That was a little bold to ask, but she had to risk it, she knew how much Gold loved his hobby, teaching, and any person showing interest in knowing something, always earned his respect.

"Very well then, but if at any point you feel tired or freezing, do let me know… I don't want to carry a frozen lady on my shoulders to the hospital." He quipped.

Belle giggled and replied, "I'm not that heavy, Mr. Gold. Moreover, I think, you look quite strong enough to carry me."

Gold flinched at her reply, but smiled immediately, and then like a true gentleman, he took her coat and helped her in. Once she was ready, he offered his elbow; she was surprised but gracefully took it as he led her down the street, "Here we go then…" Belle giggled again and followed his lead.

They walked in amicable silence and passed the first two blocks, which were mainly made of restaurants on the first floor and offices above them.

Gold paused at the third building, an old stone structure with large glasses adorning its entrance, and it was written – Mid Manhattan Library on the top, on a banner. Belle gaped, staring at the building, for a long time. When she turned to thank Gold, he was already staring at her with an admiring look and a knowing smile. She understood that this was his way of calling truce, a peace offering for his rash behavior, as he was well aware of her fancy for books. This was a wonderful surprise from Gold and she's never going to forget about it for the rest of her life.

"You can stare at it as long as you want, but for now…" Gold said, "we are getting late for our dinner." They turned to leave, and Belle moved closer to hold his arms tighter as they walked again.

Imperial Fine Dining; from outside it looked very plain, with a red fluorescent fiery dragon sign hanging in front of the restaurant, with its name in Chinese as well as English. They were greeted by the host in traditional attire, who led them to their table, a dimly lit corner, surrounded by artificial plants, a private place, away from the prying eyes of other diners.

The waitress got a bottle of champagne and started pouring into their glasses while they got comfortably seated in their chairs. Gold requested the lady to leave the bottle at the table, and the lady left them alone to decide their menu. Belle was thoroughly impressed by Gold's pre-planning, and all she wanted to do was to grab her drink and gulp the golden liquid at one go, because she was getting nervous, sitting across from this wickedly handsome and confident man. It took everything she had to restrain herself from looking desperate, while she casually picked her glass and sipped the drink, boosting her with unusual confidence she didn't know existed, and which she would definitely need tonight.

After a while, the waitress came back and took their orders. Gold ordered his usual, Fiery Beef with vegetables and Chili Rock Shrimp as an appetizer. Belle took some time to decide, asking for recommendations and adding some changes to her meal. She ordered a Mushroom and Sugar Snap Siu Mei for appetizers and a simple Hot and Sour Scallops with Black Mushrooms.

They talked mostly about the merger till their food was served. Belle was pleased with her choice of food, years of consuming authentic Chinese food at Mulan's house and then again in China made her sort of an expert of their food.

"How… How did this deal happen, Mr. Gold? If you don't mind indulging me more into it."

He sighed and placed his fork on the table, took the napkin and wiped his mouth,

"Miss. French, I already told you, Mr. Shang realized that we would be the best bet as a partner for their company and then things rolled out from there."

Belle put down her fork too, narrowed her eyes at him, and asked, "Really?"

Gold tried hard to glare at her, but she knew that it was a playful one, defeated, he replied, "You never give up. Do you?" Belle gave a large stupid grin as a reply.

"So here is the thing, after our argument, I sent an apology email directly to Jie Shang, in response he wanted to check my authenticity. We exchanged several mails during the weekend and finally Mr. Jie got convinced that it was me, and put forth the proposal of merger. Mr. Jie's family is least interested in the family business, they all, except for his younger brother, have flourishing careers and a more than satisfying lifestyle in US,"

Gold took a sip from his wineglass and then continued, "I met his grandfather… mmmm… maybe twice in the past… a very intelligent, respectable, and shrewd businessman. He understood his family's moral dilemma, as you know how orthodox they can be, but after a much awaited reunion, he didn't have the courage to force his family into something they didn't want to do. So as a solution he suggested a merger would benefit them in the long run, rather than completely selling off the business… they are not yet sure if the youngest Shang would want to pursue his grandfather's business, so he suggested my name for the merger because he thought that I fit the bill really good."

"hmmm… can I believe that?" she asked him with mischief in her eyes, could be the alcohol speaking, but so soon, she just had one glass of it.

"No, sweetheart, I threatened to curse the old man into a snail and crushing him under my feet, if he didn't make a deal with me." He replied deadpanned.

She put her hands to her heart and faked a wide-mouth gasp, and then broke into a fit of laughter; Gold must have found her behavior amusing, but she felt encouraged when she saw Gold laughing too.

Belle was helping herself with a second round of champagne, and that was making her bold and careless, but she didn't mind it. _Does any drunkard mind that…? A universal NO_

Slowly their laughter subdued and she concentrated on slicing the mushroom in her plate into tiny bits, then scooping them with her spoon, she dipped them in the hot sauce and put it into her mouth. She liked the different flavors, smoky and spicy.

"It's such a pity that Regina couldn't make use of your skills, and then strut around in victory with such a huge deal in hand," he asked with contempt.

"Well… she had specifically asked me to work for _you_, not her. She didn't give me any particular reason as to why. But I figured out that you may have more interesting work than her." She remembered the files containing deals made by Regina and Gold, "… unless there is some underlying game plan she has to outmaneuver you for the position that you both are fighting for." she shrugged and started piecing the scallops now.

Gold stopped chewing his food and with a curious expression, he asked her,

"I wonder how you ladies are even friends…. You both are quite… disparate in nature."

Belle poured some of the sauce onto her scallops using her spoon, and distractedly she replied,

"Oh…We are not friends. I don't know her that well, but she helped me during my financial crisis, and when she approached me to return the favor, I didn't see anything fishy in it."

She held back the other reason, of working with Gold.

"What financial crisis?"

She mixed the scallops, mushrooms and the sauce and took a spoonful of them, tasting, she gave a satisfied sound, and took another long sip from her glass. She was really enjoying her food… a lot.

"I… wasn't aware that I'd inherited a huge debt after my father passed away,"

Belle wished she'd known about her financial problems way before she moved to China.

Her father had invested all his savings on the flower business in Storybrooke. In the beginning it seemed very successful, he was getting orders from all over Maine, encouraged, he borrowed a huge loan from the bank to expand his business. Unfortunately, he had to divert that money to his cancer treatment, about which he came to know after taking the loan. With all the medicines and chemotherapy, his health got stable for a while, but then his health deteriorated drastically within a few years. Belle had to drop off from school to take care of him and the business. She did her best, but then other florists started popping up in Maine, which made it difficult for her to survive the business in such a competitive environment.

When her father came to know of her desire to go to college, he encouraged her, and also paid half of her college fees with the borrowed money. But then in her final semester, he passed away, leaving her with a huge debt. While she was still working in China, she got a debt collection notice from the bank, where her father had taken the loan. She never expected it run in hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Having no idea of how to pay the amount with her meager salary, she approached Regina, who always assured her, whenever they met, to help her in any way possible. And she did help her, through her connections she was able to stall any type of criminal proceedings against her, and let the bank officials give her a fair amount of time to pay off half of the amount, and the rest was forgiven.

"Regina intervened and helped me in getting a stipulated time to pay off half of the amount and the rest was written off. I'm assuming Regina paid the other half. In return, she asked me to work for you. I was really grateful to her and agreed to join the firm."

Gold didn't say anything for a while; he was staring at his food, fiddling with his fork, and thinking.

"That's noble of her…" he said slowly in a low voice to himself, as if he was wondering how the chicken crossed the road.

"So this job means a lot to you." It wasn't a question; it was an affirmation to what she felt about the job. She stopped eating and nodded her head to that.

He continued, "I think you have already proved your efficiency, so don't worry about your job insecurity." He assured her.

Gold was being nice and helpful to her, and she responded saying, "That's really kind of you, Mr. Gold."

They finished their dinner, with Belle cleaning her plate of all the food… and the champagne. She peeked at his plate, it still had couple of shrimps and the vegetables were completely untouched.

There was already some dessert on the table; it was brought to the table without him ordering for it. A white chocolate and vanilla liqueur ice-cream decked with two rose petal-shaped pink chocolate wings. It looked delicious, but Belle already declined any more food, she was full with food and booze.

Gold took one of the rose petal and scooped some of the vanilla ice-cream, and pointing a finger at the scoop he declared,

"_This_… Miss. French is the best dessert I ever had," and then he savored the whole scoop with one go, along with the petal, "mmmm… even if I don't have any other food, I try not to miss on this one,"

_OH! Good Heavens. Why is he doing that?_

Belle was having trouble from keeping her gaze on his lips. It was torturous and she whimpered when he took another scoop,

"Are you sure Miss. French, you don't want to have some?" He asked, and she again politely declined the offer.

Instead, Belle was having a better time, watching Gold enjoy the dessert; she was in a trance with mouth gaping at the scene in front of her.

"I think, Miss. French, you are trying to maintain your figure for your… boyfriend?"

That broke the trance, even though he asked her in good humor, she felt offended and hurt, thinking he assumed her to be with someone.

"I don't have a boyfriend." She replied tersely and then gulped the leftover champagne from the glass. That soothed some of her hurt. She was getting intoxicated now. He stared at her action, and then asked her,

"Hmmm… I guess an assaulting boyfriend can leave a certain level of repulsion toward prospective ones."

Belle was visibly shocked that he knew about it.

"You knew about it?"

"No offence, Miss. French." He said raising his hands in defense, "I got this information as part of your recent background check. That's all. I'm sorry."

"Oh."

Gaston was an imbecile brute, who just couldn't handle their breakup gracefully. All, that moron wanted was to get inside her skirt. Nobody warned her of his lecherous and vengeful character, until that fateful night.

"So… if you don't mind me asking what exactly happened?" He was cautious when asking that question.

_Why did he want to know about it now? Arrggghhhh Well it doesn't matter. Who cares!_

She scoffed, recalling at that brutal memory,

"Apparently, my ex-boyfriend couldn't take my rejection gracefully, and in the ruse of a blind date, he came to see me at a diner in Storybrooke. I was waiting inside and Gaston walks in. I wasn't expecting him, because the description I got for my blind date was so different. I was angry that he would use a blind date to contact me again, try to convince me to go back to him."

She sighed, "But he surprised me, instead he apologized about his behavior and requested me to come out with him to talk for the last time. He was so convincing that I believed him, and went out with him. I hugged him and gave my best wishes and was about to part, when he pleaded me to walk with him for a while."

Belle took the bottle and swigged some of the drink. Even with the slight slur, her tone was serious and angry, "Instead of walking on the pavement across the diner, he persuaded me to take the short route, through the alley, behind the diner. And I agreed, not even once doubting his intentions."

She paused and took a deep breath, her eyes now on the empty ice-cream cup, "We'd walked for about two minutes into the alley, away from the general public, and he suddenly grabbed my wrist and slammed me across the side wall, and then tried to pull my skirt. For a moment, I was traumatized by the sudden assault, but then I regained my senses, and hit him hard… hard on his groin… twice, and then I got a good shot for his jaw, after he bend from my previous hit to his groin, it broke, then I ran to my friend, Mulan, as fast as I could."

Belle looked agonized by the whole incident, she continued, "Good heavens, Mulan went totally mad after I told her of what Gaston did to me, and went to his house, broke his arm and thrashed his corvette." She went silent.

"I'm sorry, Belle." She lifted her eyes to meet two equally agonized and angry eyes, Gold extended his hand to hold hers, "I really am…"

"That's ok…" It felt so normal, him calling her Belle, "I wanted to tell you about everything the very next day itself, but then Gaston filed a case against Mulan for assault and disruption of property," She sighed as if it was a huge burden talking about the rest of the part, "I filed a counter-complaint against him, when he saw that his case was weaker than mine, he withdrew the complaint… it was all such a mess. It took another week and a half to sort out, but by then… you were gone."

She didn't cry, but they stared at each other for a long time. Gold looked broken and rage filled his eyes, his hands caressed hers so gently, that she felt the sudden urge to get up and hug him tightly, and cry on his shoulders. Their personal moment was broken by the waitress, who came back to give their check. Gold immediately paid the amount, and they left the restaurant.

On the way back, Belle swayed and stumbled several times, and each time Gold supported her with his arms around her back, holding her steady, during the walk back to his car. It took a while for them to reach the parking lot, and Gold helped her into passenger seat, she climbed in rather clumsily, all the while giggling like a school girl. He must have murmured something while securing her seatbelt, but she could hardly make out anything of it. Gold hurried and got into the driver's seat, he switched on the heater, and started to adjust his seat.

While Gold was busy with his seat, Belle's eyes shifted towards the pink and flaky thing, right under his lower lips, must be the cream from the dessert.

"Prof." Belle called him.

He froze in his seat, and then turned to look at her, eyes fixed on hers, stunned and hunted.

"The…" Belle pointed her swaying index finger at his lower lips, "There's something on your face."

Keeping a steady gaze, he lifted his right hand to rub off the thing from his face. But he wiped his chin instead, and Belle giggled, and shook her head and caught his eyes getting darker, his eyes now moved to her mouth, and Belle got an idea to do something with the current situation, so she said,

"Here, let me help you…" She put her hand on his lapels, pulled him closer, closing her eyes, she took one short swipe of her tongue below his lower lip, and licked the cream away. And like icing on the cake, the dessert coupled with his skin, tasted the best out of the whole dinner. Gold moaned at the contact, but he did not move or object to what she did. She pulled back slowly, and opened her eyes; his eyes were closed too,

"You were right Professor," He opened his eyes, dazed and dark, "the dessert tastes really good… especially when licked out of your skin."

Belle only heard a deep growl coming from Gold and the very next moment her lips were crushed with his, devouring her entire being. Belle moaned when his tongue forced into her mouth, and she opened up eagerly to taste him.

_Oh! How he tasted of vanilla, chocolate and a hint of rose and champagne._

She loved it. She loved them all.

She struggled in her seat to move towards him but the seat belt wouldn't budge, she didn't want to let go her hands from his lapels, so she clutched onto them tightly, and pulled him towards her. Belle felt a fire go through from her chest towards her stomach and down to her core, she shivered when that happened. She let Gold take the lead, while she was content and happy, thinking that this was finally happening. And then Gold pulled away, leaving a whimpering Belle, abandoning his lapels for his neck.

Gold was trying to say something but Belle couldn't hear much, it was something like,

"Belle… Love… open eyes… darling…"

She felt as if everything around her was turning fuzzy and dark, and all she managed to say was,

"Prof… Gold"

And then everything turned completely dark around her.

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**Thank you so much my reviewers and followers… juju0268, TeamTHEFT, Twyla Mercedes, RoxyMoron, All Hallows'Eve31, and Stargate533. J**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Belle…"

Frantically, he tried to wake her up by lightly tapping her cheeks and calling out her name several times.

She'd passed out after that amazing kiss they were having in his Cadillac. Though heavily drunk with champagne, with faltering footsteps, and little to no sense of whatever she was stammering, he least expected her to lick his face once inside his car, which not only turned out to be insanely erotic but was also arousing in their current situation.

Snugly packed inside his posh car with just a small barrier of car accessories, they could easily make out in his car without anyone prying on them. But on the condition that Belle was complying and equally interested, which he could easily make out that she was, and somber, which was of utmost importance.

emportantly interestedelle to band calling out her name several timesons well about dealing with intoxicated experience he has learned his lessons about dealing with intoxicated women; they are confused and freaked out in the morning. As for Belle, if she was interested in him and ended with him in his bed, he was sure that she would still look angelic in the morning.

That greedy swipe of her tongue was so intoxicating that he couldn't stop himself from having a taste of her mouth then and there itself, in his car.

But he never thought that she would pass out after that breathless kiss. He was aware of Belle's drinking capability, which was like having two beer cans and her speech would start to slur. That was a long time back, and he hoped that she must have improved by now.

"Belle…"

Holding her chin delicately between his fingers, he tried to wake her up again.

She slurred sleepily, "Prrrofffssssrr"

He flinched, withdrawing his hand along with him. Her voice sounded so sweet, curling his name around her tongue. Nobody could call him Professor so lovingly other than his Belle.

Even in her inebriated condition she chose to call him, Professor, than the one she had to use while they worked together in his office.

"Yes, it's me. Wake up, girl. Open your eyes, Belle."

Whining, she struggled to open her eyelids, barely enough to see him.

He nodded his head, encouragingly, "Good girl. Now. Look at me. Look at me, Belle. Belle, I need you to give me your address… Belle?…"

She was again drooping off and Gold shook her shoulders a little harder, "Belle... darling… you need to open your eyes…"

She came back this time with more presence of mind, "Prrrroffsssrrr… Goollddd…"

Relieved, he added, "… Yes. Yes. Sweetheart… just tell me the ad… Shit!"

He slumped in his seat, exhausted, in his mission to wake her up. Taking her to his house would be a bad idea and leaving her in a hotel room alone would be another one.

He breathed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to think of how to find her address and drop her at her place. He raked his mind to think to remember what else she had said about her place. And then suddenly he heard Belle slur,

"Mmayyreee… hommmeee…" as if she heard his dilemma in taking her home and then she was gone again.

Mary. Mary. He chanted that name in his mind trying to figure out who it was. He tried to remember all the Mary's he knew and then like a spark he got it that Mary is David's girlfriend from the office and that Belle actually stayed with Ruby and Mary.

He immediately took out his cellphone, and dialed David's number. It went to his voicemail. Gold tried again and again, finally David answered his call,

"Mr. Gold?"

He had given his personal number to David for emergency purpose, and he remembered that he seldom contacted on his number, usually resorting to emails.

"Is Mary with you?" Gold asked

"Uh… yes. Why?" David hesitated on the other end.

"Give her the phone." After a slight hesitation and whispers, he had Mary on the phone.

"Yes, Mr. Gold?" she asked.

"Are you Miss. Belle French's roommate?"

"Yes"

"Can I have your address, please?"

"What's wrong, Mr. Gold? Is everything ok with Belle?"

"Everything's fine Miss. Margaret. Belle had a couple of drinks and she passed off right before she could give me her address. So please."

"Oh. Ok."

And then she gave the address to her apartment. He promptly fed that into his GPS and confirmed with her the directions to their place.

"Just wanted to ask something else too, if you don't mind?"

"Sure, Mr. Gold"

"Is Ruby your roommate too?"

"Yes, Why?"

"Nothing specific, her granny requested me to check on her every now and then. I'm sort of a local guardian to her. You know, bad habits break hard."

"Oh, oh, ok… ummmm she's been clean for a long time, Mr. Gold… but, yeah, she parties a lot. And right now… she's not actually at home and it'd be a little late tonight. You know… Friday night and all."

"Yes, Miss. Margaret, I get that. Thank you."

"You're welcome"

He then put down the phone.

It was a struggle to her apartment, with her stumbling and wavering all the way up. He knocked first, in the hopes of Ruby opening the door. When there was no response coming from the other side, he took Belle's purse and found the keys to her apartment, and pushed open the door.

He somehow found out her room, lay her down in her bed, removed her shoes and then covered her with a sheet. He huffed and sat next to her in her bed, watching her sleep, oblivious to her surroundings. This could have been an amazing night, if only she had restrained from drinking so much.

He let out a breath and bent down and kissed her brow, whispering,

"Good night… Belle."

Reluctantly, Gold dragged his limping body out of the room, to the hall where Gold sank onto a fluffy chair. He cannot leave her alone in this state, and there was no one else in the house. He may have to wait for Ruby to show up and then leave, and be assured that Belle is taken care of.

So he removed his coat and his wrinkled jacket, laid it on the edge of the chair, and sat there waiting.

If he is not wrong, then Ruby is the one who can answer the questions that has been popping up in his head. The shock was apparent on his face by Belle's revelation of that fateful night, and it took all his strength to not curse or swear to harm Gaston by driving back to Storybrooke right away and strangling him with his own bare hands.

In the meanwhile, he wanted to keep himself awake till Ruby arrived, so he kept himself busy by trying to read the women's magazine sitting on the coffee table. That didn't hold his attention for even a second and he threw it on the table, frustrated at the alien language of women. Instead he ended up browsing his phone for a while.

Balancing Belle not only from the restaurant to his car, but again from his car to her apartment had taken a toll on his leg and he could feel the pain throbbing in his knee. To ebb the pain he massaged his knee for a while, then raised his leg to rest on the coffee table, and then he relaxed.

"That feels so good." He sighed.

Gold lay there thinking of the beautiful girl lying in a bed just couple of feet away. He thought what a coward he was, running away from her without even making an effort in their would-have-been relationship. She was this small flicker of light in his life and he didn't even let her shine in his life.

Gold wasn't feeling right at all, thinking of Belle and their past, coupled with the pain, made him seek out his prescribed painkiller from his pocket that he always kept to be used in such situations.

After a few minutes, the medicine started taking its effect on his body, making him relax even more; eventually he dozed off in that furry chair.

And all this while, he didn't hear the unsteady clicking sound of heels and curses that passed through the living room to another room in the apartment.

He woke up several hours later with stiff muscles and aching bones, to the bright light shooting arrows of bright light onto his eyes from the open windows. It took him a few moments to realize that he was not in his plush bed instead was awkwardly sitting on a fluffy chair with a pink teddy bear as his pillow.

"Awwhhh… shit… shit."

Pain shot up on his neck when he tried to check his surroundings; that was a really bad position to sleep on. He must have been really exhausted to have dozed off in that position. He needed some coffee right now, something really strong.

He decided to check on Belle and then leave a note asking her to call him for any emergency.

While still planning in his head to do that, he heard some cursing and murmuring from Ruby's room and a groggy and irritated Ruby running toward Belle's room, then after a minute or so she came out carefully closing the door behind her, then lifted her phone to talk to someone.

"She's fine, Mary…" she yawned, "I think she's sleeping. I'll wake her up after some…" and she jumped, "what the f***…"

In return, Gold grinned at her widely, "Good morning, dearie."

She stood there opened mouthed, shocked, and glaring at him.

"I'll call you back, Mary… Sure… ok… bye." Then sneered at him, "… what the hell are you doing here?"

He shrugged, "Just checking on my ward? Remember I'm your local guardian"

"No, you're not."

"According to your granny - Yes." He smugged and that irritated her even more.

"So does that give you a license to break into my apartment to check on me?"

He shrugged again, "Maybe, if you were behaving well."

"Get out."

"Not so soon, dearie…" This time he chose the sofa, which looked less girly, "We got something to discuss. How about we discuss it while we are having some strong coffee." He gestured to the chair across from his, "Trust me it will help both of us to get done with it… soon, and I'll be on my way."

She glared at him, but then complied to his request like a grumpy kid. She made a lot of noise while making the coffee, loud enough to wake up Belle, and Gold didn't want Belle to hear what he was about to discuss with her.

Still unable to stand his presence in her house, she grudgingly handed over his coffee mug, and then settled down opposite to him on another pink fluffy chair.

"What is it?"

He leisurely took a sip from his mug and hummed his approval of the coffee,

"I like tea better. Coffees are only for hangovers. You haven't lost the touch, dearie."

And he showed his wolfish smile with exposed teeth, as if ready for a kill.

Ruby rolled her eyes and took a sip from her own coffee mug.

"So… Ruby, if you could go back into your school days and jog out some memories and brief me on your role on the night, Belle had a blind date."

She was taken aback by the point blank question, and looked uncomfortable sitting across from him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." And then placed her coffee mug on the table, and got up to leave.

"Sit down..." He almost barked at her and she fell in her seat with a thud, "I didn't ask you to leave, Ruby."

If she was a hound, she would have been in Boston by now, that's how panicky she looked, wanting to bolt off the situation if given a chance.

"You very well know. Its better you spit it out now or else I'll have to use other methods which you wouldn't like the least."

Her eyes grew wide with fear, and he continued, "You are very well aware of my reputation, Ruby. Don't make me do something that will harm your loved one in the end – another guilt over your head."

She flinched badly and her face turned white with fear,

"You cannot do that… Gran… Granny's your friend."

"Well… since when did the monster care about friendship… dearie?" That was a lie, he wouldn't let anything happen to Ruby or her Granny, but she was making it hard for him to get answers out of her.

"You, bastard." She burst out.

"Well, that… I am." Gold hissed back.

They remained silent; glaring at each other.

Frustrated by her silence, he growled at her,

"I don't have the whole day, Ruby. So talk."

Ruby jumped in her seat, startled by his shouting. She started twisting the torn ends of her shorts, face terrified and pale.

"I… I found out that… Archie… had… had set up a blind date between… you and… Belle."

_That foolish Dr. Hopper_, Gold thought.

"I was angry at you for insulting me in front of everybody and I wanted to take revenge on you for that. So I made fun of you and your blind date with my friends in the hallway, so that it will hurt your ego and make you feel what I felt in the class. And for that I even asked Gaston to show up as Belle's fake blind date… on… on that night. "

At the mention of Gaston's name, he looked with disgust at her, rage boiling his blood and dying to strangle that wretched soul.

"Do you have any idea what your stupid action did to her" he was crushing the cane's handle with both his hands, draining the blood from his palms. He was losing control of his anger wanting to thrash something with his cane.

Ruby squirmed in her place, eyes wide in fear and trembling.

"I swear, Mr. Gold! I… I did… didn't know that he would do something like that to her. I thought… that by sabotaging your date, I would be fixing her love life and hurting your ego in turn."

Ruby looked distressed and pained, "If I had known what an asshole he was, I'd have never told him about the date. Even to this day, I feel so guilty of my actions."

Her eyes were filled with tears and she looked at him, "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry."

"I understand your anger toward me, Ruby. And it's not me, who you should apologize to. I'm nobody and I also know that I'm a tough man to love, but… it was Belle who paid the price that night." she wiped her tears with her hands, smudging her eyes with her tears and mascara.

"… so… just… just stop crying, now. ok."

Gold felt uncomfortable sitting there with her; he was not good at comforting others. His intention was to get answers from her, not to make her cry, but that's what he ended up doing. He felt bad about it, but the lecture was necessary, to warn her of any future rash decision she wanted to take, for her own safety as well as for others.

"But… but… I…"

"I think I better leave…" he got up from the chair, "… thank you for the coffee." He grabbed his coat, and then walked toward the front door to leave, but then he turned around right before reaching the front door,

"Will you do me a favor, Ruby?"

Ruby jolted from her seat, turning around, she replied, "Sure.".

"Please… take care of Belle, alright."

She nodded her head, "Yes, I will."

"Thank you."

He had stayed far too long in their apartment; technically he was an uninvited guest and ended up having a sleepover in a girl's apartment. If anyone came to know about it, his reputation will be flushed into a toilet. In the end he got his answers though.

"Ruby."

She looked stunned as if caught in an act of stealing. Ruby was on her way back to the living room after closing the front door, when Belle confronted her. She heard most of the conversation between her and Gold.

"You are up…" Ruby cleared her throat, "so… how was the dinner?"

Belle could feel Ruby getting tensed

"What happened here?" Belle questioned

"What? Nothing." Ruby shook her head

"What was Mr. Gold doing here?"

"Oh! That. Ummmm… he got you home last night and was waiting for me to come back home, so that he could leave." She motioned both her hands to the door, "so he left."

There was no eye contact and she was stammering at her words. She was clearly lying.

"I heard everything. So just tell me what was going on here?"

She shot her head toward her, caught in her lying.

"You… you… heard… everything?" she stammered

"Almost, but enough to understand what you both were talking about." Belle replied

"But… you were sleeping when I last checked you."

"Well… sometimes it's better to not throw the kitchen dishes around and speak very low, so that you don't wake up someone."

"Oh! Sorry." She said sheepishly

Belle gave an uneasy smile. Her head hurt so much that it felt like someone was repeatedly hitting on her head with a baseball bat.

She closed her eyes wanting to numb the throbbing pain, but as soon as she closed her eyes nausea kicked in, and she had to run towards her bathroom to empty her stomach.

Ruby came in after her and stood at the door, "Are you alright?"

When she was done, Belle came out, clean, "I'm fine. I had a little too much of the celebratory drink. So you know."

"Maybe, you should rest for a while. We'll talk later." Ruby hesitated.

"NO, whatever it is, I want to know. I don't like being put in the dark while everything crumbles around me."

Ruby sighed, "Alright then, come with me…" she led her to the living area, "why don't you sit here, while I get you some strong coffee. It will help you with the nausea."

Belle didn't say anything, just nodded. Her throat was completely parched and lips dry, coffee can help her… for now.

After handing over the mug, Ruby took her place again and then recollected Belle's blind date and told her everything about it. Belle was frozen in her place, shocked at the information that was pouring out from Ruby's mouth.

"How could you do that to me, Ruby?"

"I'm sorry Belle. I was stupid and wasn't thinking. I never thought that Gaston would turn out to be such a asshole and try to sexually assault you. I'm really very sorry. Please forgive me."

Ruby was crying and begging her to forgive her. Belle isn't some cruel vamp or something, who would take a revenge on something (bad) that happened years ago. She had forgotten that incident, but was reminded of it last night and now again, with the whole truth out in the open.

"Was that why you tried to avoid me in the beginning?"

Ruby nodded, "Yes. I couldn't believe myself that you working in the same company as I. I was scared, Belle…" her voice became small and hoarse, "I remembered the day and felt the pain of losing my boyfriend after that incident." And she started to cry.

Belle felt bad for her, "Oh, Ruby, I'm so sorry about that…" and then came over and wrapped her arms around her, trying to comfort her, "It's alright. I forgive you."

Belle tried her best to calm her down, it took a while for her sobbing to stop, and then she let her go.

"I think he likes you."

Belle looked at Ruby with a puzzled expression, "Who?"

"Mr. Gold." She replied as a matter of fact

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, he really likes you."

Belle wished it was true, but she was not in a state to argue with Ruby on that.

Ruby rolled her glassy eyes, "You are so blind, Belle. I can tell you that he always liked you… since college."

"What?"

"Any fool could see that he likes you. Just tell me, why a man like Mr. Gold would care to go that extra distance to care for a drunk assistant, stay back at her place all night, guarding her to keep her safe?!"

"He stayed… all night… here?" Belle couldn't believe her ears, Gold stayed back for her!

"Yes, Miss. Beauty."

"I thought he just came in."

"No, I believe he slept here the whole night. Well, to me he looked like he did."

Belle's lips curled slowly, turning her cheeks pink.

"He still likes you, Belle. I think he has fallen hard for you, I saw it in his eyes. Who knows, maybe, he's in love with you."

"That's… I… How… I mean, it's been so long. How could he?"

"I think you should find it out yourselves."

Belle stared at her for a while trying to understand what she meant, and then she knew what she had to do.

"I think you are right. Do you know where he lives?"

Ruby grinned wide and said, "I can find it for you."

They giggled together with excitement.

Belle hugged Ruby tightly and beamed, "Thank you, Ruby."

"That's the least I can do for you, Belle."

**Thank you all my reviewers specially: juju0268, NicoleMuenchSeidel, RoxyMoron, All Hallows' Eve31, Twyla Mercedes, and .**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Belle parked her car on Gold's tarred driveway and sat there thinking over what she's going to do once she faces the man himself on the other side of the multicolored glass door adorning the pink villa.

_Pink Villa? What was he thinking?_

Curiously she wondered about his taste on architecture, his house was a magnificent double story mansion but colored in fuchsia and the door was best suited somewhere on a church window. Admittedly, it looked beautiful, but a stark contrast from the man she works with.

_He is one strange man_! Belle shook her head in disbelief.

Nervously she drummed the steering wheel while keeping her eyes closed recollecting the things that she's going to discuss with Gold.

Before leaving the house she had a thorough discussion with Ruby, who had found out his address from David. While Belle insisted on having a sensible conversation with him would be the right course of action, Ruby had other ideas which involved force, nudity and sex.

Belle laughed at her and brushed it aside, but when she took the warm shower, she couldn't help thinking that that was what she wanted to do with him. Every scenario that she ever dreamt of them having sex, just flashed through her mind like a movie trailer, making her more determined to go to his house and confront him with the questions that have been bugging her since college, and get through with all the misunderstandings once and for all.

All her bravery seems to have slipped off like sand from her hand after parking her car on his driveway.

She took a deep breath, "Relax, Belle. This is where you have to be brave. Don't back off, now," saying she got out of the car.

She took a moment to take in the surroundings; it was a well-kept residential area with homes that only a millionaire could afford. She glanced at her clothes to see if her clothes were worth the millionaire setting of this place. She was wearing a light blue silk shirt and a dark blue skirt that reached just above her knees.

_Darn! Who cares about clothes right now, Stupid girl_

Belle scolded herself for taking such trivial things into consideration when all she had to think was of facing her deepest fear – fear of rejection from the man she loved all these years.

Hesitantly she walked towards the front porch of his house. Belle felt her heart beat quicken and her whole body shivered with excitement and fear. She climbed the steps and stood in front of the glass door, then, smoothing her dress subconsciously, she squinted to look through the glasses to see if someone was on the other side of the door but found her own distorted reflection staring back at her.

She adjusted her hair, cleared her throat, and then she closed her eyes to say a little prayer before knocking on the door.

"Shit," she jumped from her place, and almost tripped on the stairs, throwing her out of control and frantically reaching for the railing on time. The magnificent glass door opened on its own, scaring the hell out of Belle.

_That definitely was not a good way to end a _prayer. Her eyes were tightly shut from the panic caused by the sudden opening of the door.

"Belle…? Are you… are you alright?"

"mhmmm…" She nodded in response, and then slowly opened her eyes to the absolutely amazing sight in front of her. A disheveled Gold wearing the same dress suit as last night minus the jacket, but the tie was gone and the shirt was unbuttoned in such a way that his chest was clearly visible to her lusty eyes.

A strange sense of shiver shot from her stomach to the rest of her body, creating goosebumps all over her skin. Her mouth went dry and her whole body heated up in an instance. Tearing her eyes from his exposed skin, she tried to focus on his face, and give an intelligent answer to his question.

Clearing her throat, she looked up and replied,

"I'm fine…" swallowing the saliva that formed when she saw him, she let out a tremulous laugh,"… yeah… I'm perfectly fine,"

But his perfectly dark chocolate colored eyes, saliva glazed lips, and open chest weren't helping her at all. The heat that she that she felt under the showers, now came back with a vengeance and hit her like a freight train.

"Oh! Gold," and then she lunged toward him, taking his face in her hands, she smacked on his lips. Then slightly tilting her head, she kissed him harder, and kept pressing on as if her life depended on it.

It didn't matter whether he wanted the same as her or not. To her, the moment mattered, and the moment said – _go for _it. Nothing else made any sense to her. So whether he liked it or not, she was determined to have her moment, the rest can be taken care of later.

To her surprise, he responded, not in the way she had expected but far fiercer than she was, and that made her heart jump twice with excitement.

His arms were tightly wrapped around her, one hand behind her head, holding her still in place, so that he could prolong the surprise attack. The tip of his tongue touched her lips and she instantly opened it for him, letting him explore her mouth.

_Oh! That feels good, _she moaned at the heat of his tongue invading her mouth.

The liquorish taste of his hot tongue made her roll her eyes in her head. His tongue dueled with hers, and as if that wasn't enough, he went for her lips, sucking, scraping and nibbling on them, taking turns shifting between the upper lip and the lower one.

They were barely breathing, taking shots of air whenever they got a chance to do, but that small inconvenience didn't matter to them at all.

Moaning and groaning, her body kept pushing onto his or was that him pulling her towards him? She had no idea, but then she found out the answer when the door shut behind her with a bang, startling her, and making her talk between their kisses,

"mmmm… Gold… ahhh…" he bit her lower lip as if to stop her from talking, "we need to talk."

He moaned in protest. She tried again, "Please…"

"Yes… we will," and then he dipped again his clever tongue into her mouth and started swirling around her tongue. He pushed deeper into her mouth making their teeth clatter, then slowly pulling back his tongue a little, he resumed in exploring her mouth, which she eagerly let him do, suddenly moaning when he hit a sensitive spot.

They were panting like animals when they broke off from their kiss, but not yet ready to let go off their bodies. They were firmly plastered to each other's body, darkened eyes staring into each other, unable to say anything.

Belle gasped when she felt his hardness pressing onto her stomach. He wanted _this_, she knew and with a smirk she pulled him so hard that he lost his balance and fell over her, leading him to crash along with her towards the closed door.

After regaining the balance, Belle started to place wet kisses all over his throat, and tasting his skin along with his sweat mixed with some alcohol.

_It tasted like heaven_, Belle grinned when Gold stood there unable to breathe, grunting at each openmouthed kiss that she placed there.

She decided then and there that if their talks went in the right direction, she would have her _fantasy of drinking scotch from his body_ come alive in the next few days.

Gold was groaning and rubbing his hardness on her body, while his hands lay firmly lodged on either side of her head on the door. He did enjoy her ministrations and she could sense that it was becoming unbearable for both of them with their clothes still on them.

"You… you… wanted… to talk," he grunted.

All she said was, "later"

But he insisted by holding her shoulder and pulling her away from him, "Belle…" and searching her eyes for something, "you… don't want this".

Annoyed by the interruption and his stupid assumption, Belle replied with a huff, "Do you really want to stop now, Gold?" and then skipped her hand over his strained pants and lightly squeezed on his erection.

He shut his eyes, growling, "Bed or sofa?"

_Aha so that made sense!_

Belle could actually do a victory dance just by watching each of his layers peeling off; his defenses falling at her feet, "sofa… my lo…"

He didn't let her complete her sentence and she didn't stop him from grabbing her waist, and capturing her mouth again, making her squeal in delight at his eagerness.

Belle held onto him, one hand skimming through his hair, and lightly scratching his scalp in the process eliciting sounds of approval from him, and the other one tightly lodged around his shoulder, which had started to glide to the front, downwards to his chest, feeling the heat radiating from his burning skin that had turned beet red in color. His heartbeat was drumming faster against her palm.

As soon as her fingers touched his skin, Gold growled again, slipping his left hand from her waist to her buttocks and squeezing them hard. He started to knead them as if he found something to play with his hands.

Gold's lips left hers and were now trailing kisses all around her lips, chin, then her throat, almost lightly biting her there. She hissed and her hands made a fist on his chest, which were making lazy circles around his nipples.

He grazed his teeth over her skin, a little lower on her shoulder blades, leaving bite marks all over her shoulder, then, he soothed the spot by sucking the skin and laving it with his tongue. His other hand came up from behind her head to cup her breast through her shirt and started to roughly massage them.

Her mind was reeling out of control with all the sensations his hands, mouth and body were causing. Her legs were turning into jelly and she was putting all her energy to just stand there, supporting her body with his. She was sure that her knees would give up anytime.

Even though, she was the one who initiated, it seemed like Gold was having more control of the situation than her. She was just slipping more and more into this _interesting_ activity.

Again they broke off from the kiss, but not completely. Immediately their hands got busy removing clothes from each other's body while still managing to keep kissing whenever they could.

They were also moving, _that_ Belle was sure of, because with each piece of clothing that flew off from their bodies, Gold seemed to be pushing her to the back, but she had no idea of where they were going. Her eyes were concentrated only on Gold's naked body which started to reveal itself more and more every second.

Completely bare, Gold gave her one last push and the back of her knees hit something and she started to fall, luckily Gold was still holding her at the waist and going down along with her. It scared her for a moment that she would hit the floor and pass off like last night, but was relieved when her back rested on something soft – his sofa.

They'd finally reached their destination. Gold was on top of her, his bare skin pressing onto hers; his lips busy with hers, and his hands greedily kneading her breasts, in turn hardening her nipples like small rocks.

For a moment, he paused his kissing and lifted his head to look at her face, which made her to open her eyes to see why he had stopped.

"Belle, Are… are you sure?" his face was flushed, hair in a mess, with those dark brown eyes pleading her to take her.

Then it hit her, he wanted to be sure before they proceeded any further.

Though the request was very gentleman like, Belle didn't have the patience for all that right now. She couldn't wait, her thighs were already wet and dripping with her fluid, and she knew that even he knew about it because his knee was between her thighs, "Please…"

And he was back again to kissing her roughly, nibbling down towards her chest, taking each breast in turn to suck them and take her nipples between his teeth to worry them and suck on them. Then abandoning her breasts for her stomach, he trailed kisses all the way down to her waist and then to her core.

With just one swipe he opened the lips covering her sensitive bud, and then started to suck her there. Belle couldn't stay still because with every sweet torture of his tongue, her body writhed in pleasure, and encouraged him even more by jerking her hips with every swipe.

Pushing two of his fingers into her core, he started to pump her. She gasped at the penetration and arched her body to let him further inside. Completely lost in his ministrations, she was clinging on the edge of sanity. And then it happened, her orgasm slammed her hard, tightening her muscles around his fingers and then convulsing, her body collapsed into a puddle, screaming out his name, "Gold".

Smug faced Gold looked at Belle from where he lay. Despite her body being tired and limp, she wanted more. She wanted him inside her. Her eyes fell on his disheveled face and she pleaded,

"Pleasee…"

That was all she had to say, and he positioned his body over her, spreading her things, he entered her, and then paused for a second to feel the sensation of her inner muscles clenching around his manhood.

Belle sighed when he entered her, lifting her hand to his face, she urged him towards her, to give him a very awkward and sloppy kiss.

From there on, all that she could hear was grunting, moaning, and lots of slapping of flesh.

He slipped his finger between her folds, and rubbed her clit, pinching it couple of times to make her come, first. Following her orgasm, he found his release too, and then with a grunt he collapsed over Belle's shoulder, resting his head at the nook of her shoulder.

Once his body relaxed a bit and the panting turned to normal breathing, he slowly got up and then slid down to the floor, sitting upright with the back of his head resting over Belle's stomach.

He turned his head to look at Belle, but she was already watching him with a satisfied smile gracing her lips, "You alright?"

"uhunh," she replied, then started to run her fingers through his hair, "I love you, Gold," she blurted out, halfway realizing what she had said.

_No more regrets_, she said to herself.

That is what she felt for him and that is what it's going to be, she decided.

Surprised, he took her hand, and placing a very light kiss, he said, "I love you too,"

That was not the answer she was expecting from him. Though it surprised her, she somehow felt at ease at his words. After a very long time, her aching heart had finally found some reprieve.

Gold spoke, "I'll make some tea for us," and he got up to limp toward the kitchen, picking up his trouser and pausing to wear it before moving on.

Belle's eyes were roaming all over his nude body and then when he turned his back, she gasped when a naughty thought crossed her mind regarding his rump, and then grinning to herself she lay on the couch for a while.

Unable to stay still and be left alone in the dark room, she too got up to join Gold in the kitchen. She found her clothes in a mess thrown everywhere. Her shirt was on the doorway, skirt on the stairs, panties covering the head of a statue and her bra was completely lost; it was torn into two by Gold's strong hands.

Then her eyes fell over his discarded shirt. She picked it up, and brought it to her face to inhale the cloth. One breath was enough for her to remember his scent forever. She quickly wore it and strolled toward the kitchen.

Pulling out two cups from the cupboard, Gold was busy preparing some type of herbal tea. Even after what happened between them, Belle could sense that he was nervous, so nervous that he forgot to switch on the fire to heat the water.

"So…" he turned around to face her, pointing a finger at her, he said, "you wanted to talk."

Belle giggled at his forgetfulness, shaking her head in disbelief, she went ahead and switched on the fire. In comparison to the office beast that he was known for, his face now resembled more of a chagrined child; anxious and embarrassed.

Belle felt bad about it. To ease the situation, Belle tiptoed and kissed him on his lips, softly, surprising him again, and he relaxed in her arms and kissed her back in the same gentle way.

Then lifting her head to his ear, she whispered, "I'm nervous too,"

A deep chuckle ran over his chest, "Aye that we are, "then placing a kiss on her nose, he whispered, "And this shirt looks much better on you than me."

"Thank you," she smiled back. He kissed her again, this time deeper, and after breaking apart, he let his forehead rest on hers.

_Looks like they were never going to get enough of kissing each other_, she thought.

His palms slid up and down her lower back, he said, "I missed you so much, Belle. I really missed you. I wish… I wish I wasn't a coward back then… and we could've been together by now."

She sighed, sliding her palms to his chest, she said,

"All I can say is whatever has happened has happened. I'm happy right now… Right! This moment… is what matters, now, and it is so perfect. I don't want to think about our past anymore thinking of what we could have had or what we could have not had. I've waited too long, Stanley, for this to happen… way too long. I'm madly in love with you. I know that I sound stupid to you but this is what I feel… for you. I love you a lot. I… It's ok if you don't feel the same and if…"

"I love you too, Belle. And I'm equally mad about you," Gold interjected.

Her eyes flew back at him and she could see the sincerity in what he said.

All these years of waiting and hoping that her mentor would have the same feelings for her as she, just overwhelmed her. That in itself was unbelievable. This is what she always wanted, him to also love her, them to be together. All they had to do now was to work on their newly found relationship.

Their wonderful moment was inadvertently interrupted by the whistle coming from the kettle.

Gold sighed, reluctantly leaving her arms to prepare their tea. He offered a cup to Belle and then taking his own, he gestured her to sit on one of the bar stools, and he took the one beside her's.

"I'm sorry, Belle," Gold spoke with his hands firmly holding his cup while his eyes transfixed on the contents of the cup,

"I should've shown up at the diner instead of running away after seeing you with…" he clenched his teeth trying to say her ex-boyfriend's name, "Gaston at the diner. I wish I knew the truth instead of believing whatever Ruby said," he lifted his head, turning to her side, "I'm very sorry."

Placing her hand on his wrists, "The truth is, I never took Gaston as my boyfriend, Gold. He was the one who flaunted me around as his girlfriend without my permission. I had no guts back then to go against him, until… I met you, "she smirked, "I actually dumped him the very next week after I met you,"

She puffed cheeks and exhaled deeply, "But that bloke didn't have the balls to take my rejection and thought to teach me a lesson with his equally dumb balls," Gold snorted and started to laugh at the way Belle was describing Gaston, "Thanks to Mulan, he'll think twice before assaulting another girl for the rest of his pathetic life. She was so… super… mad at him."

"I think, I'm gonna like your friend Mulan a lot. Isn't she the same girl who always put on a face that said – _you look at me again and I'm gonna gouge your eyes_ – kind of look?" he asked

"Oh yes, that's my girl," and then they both ended up laughing and enjoying their tea.

"Belle, we need to be careful about our relationship," he was serious now, but Belle couldn't understand why in the whole universe they'd have to be careful. She looked at him with a puzzled expression.

He breathed and then continued, "Regina… she can be a problem,"

How the hell could Regina be a problem in their relationship? He cleared it for her, "Regina and I are in battle to claim the vice-president position in Regal Eagle. I think you already know about that," he assumed.

Jefferson filled those details for her, and she nodded her head in response, then he continued, "Belle… sweetheart… Regina… she can hurt you. If she comes to know that we are in a relationship, she'll use you against me… to hurt me… by hurting you. And I won't stand that. I'll go mad, Belle," he looked scared, angry and panicked, "I already did a mistake by leaving you back then, but now, things have changed, and I'm in no mood of letting anything bad happen to you. She's an evil witch and she can hurt you, Belle!"

His eyes turned glassy, and his grip became firm on her hand. Before he loses it all, Belle got down from her chair and hugged him, "I understand, Gold. I've my own doubts on her intention for staying in this company,"

She breathed in trepidation thinking of the files that she came across searching for more information for the Chinese deal, "I think she has planned something really big," and then she revealed about the files.

"I'm aware of those files, but what I'm talking about is a possible homicide that Regina is involved in directly or indirectly,"

Shocked at the revelation, Belle gasped and placed her palm over her mouth, "what?"

"Darling, don't be scared. I've everything under control. No matter what happens I don't want you to become a target in this whole mess. Just… try to keep things the way they are. You… understand, right?"

Nodding her head quickly, "Yes, Yes, I understand," then she asked him doubtfully, "So we… we continue being boss and assistant?"

He was sad, "Belle, sweetheart, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about this whole new mess. It'll just take a few more days, and we can be open about our relationship. Till then… please…"

Though whatever he asked her to do, hurt her, but the price seemed bearable, she thought, "Don't worry, I'll be careful," but then she asked him, "but… can we see each other… here, right?"

Relief spreading over his features, he replied, "of course, Belle, you can come here anytime you want," planting a kiss over her lips, "Otherwise I don't think I'll be able to survive without you for even a day,"

"I will, Gold," she giggled at his admission.

"It's Stanley," she looked at him, puzzled, "my name," he offered

"Hmmm… I know. I prefer, Gold, because you are precious to me,"

He pulled her back and hugged her fiercely,

"Belle… please, stay back?"

She hummed in response and they started to kiss again.

**Thank you all for the wonderful reviews - All Hallows' Eve31, juju0268, ctdg, NicoleMuenchSeidel, maizeblue7, Girlyemma96 and LoveisLayered.**


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